Battle Royale: The Rise and Fall of Fallcreek High
by Sergio Shield-Eyes
Summary: This is the story of Fallcreek State High School's Class B, a group of 16-18 year olds selected to compete in The Program. 42 will fight. 41 will die. 1 will survive. Welcome to the twisted world of Battle Royale.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy and please feel free to leave me a review.**

_"Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die..."_

We are greeted with the sound of static as a television bursts to life. The TV starts off by playing a typical reality show that can be found on any channel these days, where two trashy looking teenage girls are currently arguing over who slept with who this week, before getting into a physical fight in a kitchen area. The viewer quickly decides to change the channel, flicking through a numerous amount of unintelligible programs before settling on a live news report. A pretty young woman dressed in expensive clothing sits at the news desk, staring at the screen as she delivers the days news.

"...and the violence in Detroit continues today as hundreds of people march down it's streets protesting against the government's current regime, calling for a change in office as they wreak havoc in their cities streets. Police have closed off all major roads in and out of the city as they attempt to quell the rioters and put an end to the violence that has taken hold of the city for close to three weeks now. We now cross live to our correspondent in Detroit, Sally Kwon. Sally, what's the situation like down there?" The anchorwoman reports, showing next to no emotion as she reads the teleprompter.

The news report now cuts to a disgruntled looking middle-aged Asian woman, standing on the sidewalk of one of Detroit's main streets. The street behind the woman is overflowing with people of all races as they march together down the street. Some are holding signs that read anti-government messages, while others run with weapons of all sorts in their hands. One man has even constructed a homemade flamethrower using a hose and propane tank, and he is currently leading the brigade as the others follow him. As soon as the reporter has realized that the camera is on, her angry expression quickly changes to one of determination as she speaks to the woman back at the studio.

"Thanks Tracy. I'm down here on Woodward Avenue, where as you can see the situation has only escalated as hundreds of people at a time are taking to the streets in protest. Civil panic is at an all time high as homes all over the city are being broken into with accounts of assault, rape and even murder are recorded everywhere, leaving police vulnerable as their forces are being stretched thin. We managed to score an exclusive interview with one of the ringleaders of the protesters, and we will air it for you now! Jerry! Roll the clip!" Sally the reporter barks at her off-screen cameraman.

"Wait! Wait Sally! Something's going on over there!" Jerry yells off-screen as he points the camera towards the front of the crowd of protesters.

The apparent leader of the crowd, the man with the flamethrower, has reached a police checkpoint that has been erected at the end of the street in an attempt by police to control the situation. The leader makes multiple attempts to get past the checkpoint, but he is rebuffed by the officers who man the checkpoint, each one clad in riot gear. Getting frustrated at not being able to pass, the leader brings up his flamethrower and aims it at the police in a threatening manner.

A gunshot rings out in the city street, causing the whole crowd of protesters to become silent for just one moment. The leader of the rioters slowly lowers his flamethrower as it droops to his side, before falling backwards onto the hard concrete road, smashing his homemade weapon on the ground as he does so. A rookie cop stands at the front line of the police, his hands shaking as he holds his firearm, smoke rising from the barrel where his shot was emitted. A superior officer looks down at the rookie and whacks him with his riot shield, causing the shivering man to drop his standard issue Glock handgun onto the ground.

"What the hell did you do?!" The older man barks at the rookie, who is still standing still from shock.

After finally realizing what has happened to their leader, the army of rioters break out into a roar as they swarm upon the police. Many officers are knocked to the ground as they are pummeled with baseball bats and steel pipes, while others are hit with flying bricks and other debris. A young man who looks to only be in his early 20's scoops up the fallen leader's flamethrower and attempts to use it on the police, but he can't seem to get it operational. He decides on what the weapon needs to operate, and swiftly pulls a Zippo lighter out of his jeans pocket. He lights up the lighter, and holds it up to the hose end of the device.

This proves unfortunate however as the man soon explodes into a shower of flames and gore, painting the people and scenery around him in both fire and blood, wiping out a large bunch of rioters and police in the process. This only causes more chaos on the street as the crowd gets even more out of hand. Deciding that he has enough footage of the violence that surrounds him, Jerry frantically turns the camera back to Sally, who is in shock and on the verge of tears. She musters up the willpower to speak however and turns to the camera.

"As you have just seen, the situation down here has gotten even further out of hand as the crowd have now converged on the police checkpoint and are now-" Sally's report is silenced as an overhead Molotov Cocktail smashes into the ground in front of her, silencing both her and the report.

The report cuts to static for about ten seconds, before cutting back to Tracy in the studio. Tracy is still in awe at what she has just witnessed, tears running down her face as she stares at an off screen television in the studio.

"Sally..." Is all she can muster, before wiping the tears from her eyes as she realizes that the camera is back on her.

Tracy clears her throat and begins to speak again.

"Ahem. We are having 'technical difficulties' with our reporter Sally in Detroit. Hopefully we can get back to her shortly... In other news, reports are coming in from all over the country that similar incidents have broken out in many other states including New York, Florida and Indiana. We aren't sure if they escalated to the level of what was shown in Detroit, but we are assured that all civilians should remain indoors if they are located in one of these areas. Now, we have a special guest joining us on the show tonight to discuss the current events-" Tracy reports, before she stops reading the prompter and holds her hand up to her ear, revealing that she is being notified of something through her earpiece.

Tracy looks off-screen once again, with the same look she wore before, after Sally's demise. After almost a minute of silence, she looks back at the camera, this time being unable to keep her tears from flowing as she repeats what she has just been informed.

"Ladies and gentleman, it is my great 'honor' to inform you that breaking news has just come out of Washington. Our great president, Severin Carmack, has just announced that-" Tracy does her best to keep her composure, but she is ultimately interrupted as the news report is cut off.

The station instead cuts to a still image, which is a black screen with a symbol in the center. The symbol is the shade of red, and is a circle running around the initials 'BR'. 'Battle Royale' is written above the symbol, while 'Survival Program' is written underneath. Suddenly, the station cuts to a Japanese flag being shown to cover the entire screen, while the word 'JAPAN' appears in large capital letters, appearing right in the center of the screen. Trumpets play a somewhat inspirational theme in unison as the flag ripples and blows in the wind.

Footage of thousands of Japanese citizens marching through the streets of Tokyo is now shown. Members of the crowd wield both weapons and signs bearing anti-government messages, just like the rioters in Detroit that were shown earlier. They leave what seems to be a flaming trail of destruction behind them, on a much greater scale than what has been seen in the U.S. so far. Multiple angles of this footage are shown, before the video feed seamlessly switches between several different riots that have previously taken place in Japan. A mass melee between Japanese police and the civilians they are meant to be protecting is shown as people on both sides are beaten to the ground and trampled upon.

After a couple of minutes, this harsh violence is replaced by the image of a North Korean flag, and the exact same scenario plays out again, only this time on the streets of North Korea. This cycle repeats one last time as England is shown to be in the same state of violence as it's Eastern counterparts. These images of violence finally disappear as they make way for the American flag. Like the other flags, it stays on screen for a few moments while the trumpets play. This time they play the American anthem. Instead of cutting to footage of riots afterwards though, it cuts to a man sitting at a desk, facing the camera. This is no ordinary man or no ordinary room however, with the man being the current U.S. President Severin Carmack, while the room is the elegant oval office.

President Carmack is a very stocky man. He is short, but wide in a non-obese way, possessing what someone might describe as being the body of a footballer. He is also very intimidating, as not only is he well-built with muscly arms and legs, but he also has very noticeable scar that runs down the left side of his face, right next to his eye. He acquired this scar while fighting as a soldier in the Vietnam War, something that his publicists love to accentuate in their campaigns whenever he is forced to re-run for office. His jet black hair is seemingly greasy as it hangs low over his head, stopping just above his eyes. His eyes are quite piercing, and he has used them to his advantage to win numerous arguments. After getting the all clear from his off-screen camera crew, President Carmack clears his throat, and begins to speak into the camera.

"My fellow Americans, I'm afraid I must address you all today, my supporters, my friends, my people, with terrible news. As I'm sure must of you have heard, a horrible wave of devastation has gripped this great nation. Not by our enemies, but by our very own citizens. They have polluted our streets with their senseless violence and their bigotry. They claim that my position in office is what fuels their rampage, and that they won't stop until I have been removed from office. But I ask all of you, did I hold a brick in my hand and striked an honorable policeman with it? Did I break into the home of Natalie and Kevin Jones from Michigan and murder them in cold blood? Did I trap poor little Kenzie Wuthers inside a flaming car and take away her precious life? No America, I did not. But the people roaming our streets and preying on our people have. So I ask you my fellow Americans, who really needs to be stopped? We have tried to peacefully negotiate with these rioters, but I'm afraid they will not listen to reason, instead preferring to carry on with their horrendous behavior, becoming more like terrorists than freedom fighters. As you know America, we do not negotiate with terrorists! So, today I am here to inform you that I have personally approved a new bill that has been passed through congress. This bill is named The BR Act, and I am sure that those of you familiar with the previous riots over the years in Japan, North Korea and England will be familiar with it. The BR Act was extremely successful in quelling violence among it's people in those nations, so we are now aiming to do the same here. For those of you who are uninitiated, BR stands for Battle Royale. Starting soon, a random high school class from anywhere across the nation will secretly be chosen via a lottery system, giving them the glorious honor of being martyr's for the salvation of our great nation. These youths will be taking to an undisclosed location, where they will be forced to fight each other to the death, much like the gladiators of old. Only one student can emerge victorious in the end, and this champion will be rewarded accordingly. Every 6 months, this cycle will repeat with a new class, and so on and so forth. Why would we allow such a thing you ask?" President Carmack soothingly reads, never missing a beat.

President Carmack rises aggressively from his chair and stares even more menacingly into the screen, disregarding what he is meant to read from the teleprompter.

"Because of you! All of you citizens out there who take what you have for granted, and who then claim that you want more and that you want your country to be run by someone who can give you more! When this doesn't happen you carry on in a selfish manner and cry and whinge with no care for the well-being of others, like a baby that has had it's toy taken away! If you won't listen to reason, then fine, neither will I. Maybe the demise of your children will shock some sense into you. The actions that you take in life will always affect the children that you raise, and this has never been more apparent than now. The youth of today have been raised in a sheltered society where they never have to work for anything. Well now is their chance to prove that they are worthy of the gift of life that has been passed onto them. If you want to save your children, simply throw down your weapons and embrace me as your leader, so I can get to steering our nation into the right direction. Now, the arrangements for our first classes' selection have all been made, and to those who find themselves within the program, I salute you for your sacrifice for your country. Neither I or your country will forget you. God bless America". President Carmack finishes as he salutes the camera, before it cuts to a black screen.

Words start appearing in the center of the screen, as if they are being typed on a keyboard.

"STAY TUNED FOR HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PROGRAM IN JAPAN, NORTH KOREA AND ENGLAND"

After a few more moments, the screen cuts to a forest area, with a large open field being shown in the center of it. The field seems to be relatively uncared for, as the dry dead grass gives the impression that the well being of the location was forgotten long ago. A young girl sits alone in the center of the deserted field. All that lays around her is dead grass, weeds, blood, bullet casings and the bodies of her dead friends. She quietly sobs as she firmly holds her head in her hands, letting her tears flow out onto the dirt. A young boy cautiously approaches the girl, holding what appears to be some kind of gun in his hands. The boy isn't responsible for the slaughter of the girl's friends, having only stumbled upon the scene after he heard the gunshots from nearby. The boy nervously scratches the side of his neck, revealing that he is wearing a black metallic collar. It resembles something of a more expensive dog collar. After a couple of seconds of catching his breath, he walks up to the sobbing girl and leans over her, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Hey..." The boy says nervously with a British accent.

There is no response from the girl.

"I'm not going to hurt you. You're Caitlin right? My name's Howard. We had Chemistry together, remember?"

Still no response.

Howard takes his hand off of Caitlin's shoulder and looks around at the dead girls that lie on the ground around him. He counts five in total, recognizing all of them. Each body is oozing fresh blood out of the numerous bullet holes that litter their young bodies. Not only have the bullets pierced through their bodies, but they have also shredded their skin, turning the deceased girls into messes of blood and ripped, tattered skin. Howard gulps, deciding that he never wants to die like that. He looks back at Caitlin with tears in his eyes.

"Who...who did this to your friends?" Howard asks as the first tear makes it's way down his face.

Caitlin ceases her sobbing, and lifts her face out her knees. Blood stains her pretty face, turning it into an almost even split of white and red. This helps to cause her beautiful light green eyes to stand out even more, as she stares at Howard for the first time. Howard finds himself lost as he loses himself in Caitlin's emerald eyes, forgetting about the horror's that surround him for just that very moment. Unfortunately for Howard, this also means he fails to notice the fully loaded Uzi that rests in Caitlin's lap.

"I did..." Caitlin replies.

Howard gives Caitlin a confused look, before Caitlin grips her weapon and aims it firmly up at Howard. Before he can muster a single word, Caitlin squeezes down on the trigger, causing it to spew forth a flurry of bullets. Most of the bullets hit Howard directly in the face. These bullets rip through him, tearing flesh open, knocking teeth out as they obliterate his jaw and turn the roof of his mouth into nothing more than a destroyed mess as blood gushes out from all over. Other bullets pierce through one of his eyes, causing it to explode into a mess of goo and blood, while others tear off one side of his face entirely. Some even rip through his throat, nearly severing it from his neck as it hangs by a few lone strands of skin and sinew.

All of the blood that spills from Howard's destroyed head rains down upon Caitlin, who stares at Howard with those same beautiful emerald eyes. Her finger finally leaves the trigger after several seconds of firing, and Howard is dead before he even hits the ground. His tattered carcass joins the five others around him as it lands in an awkward position. Caitlin makes no attempt to clean the blood off herself, and after making sure that the coast is clear, she hides her Uzi in her lap again and proceeds to cry into her hands once more, waiting for her next victim.

After this scene between Howard and Caitlin, the station begins to cut between footage from previous programs held under The BR Act.

* * *

A boy is shown hitting another another boy over the head with a sledgehammer several times as he lays sprawled out on the ground. Each successive blow from the hammer breaks through more and more of the downed boy's skull, before crushing it completely in a very violent scene.

* * *

Two girls stab each other over and over again in the stomach as they fight over a bottle of water. Intestines begin to fall out of one girl's stomach as her gut is ripped entirely open by the blade, while the other deals with a knife that has penetrated her stomach, slicing through various vital organs.

* * *

A boy tackles a girl to the ground and bites down hard into neck, ignoring the girl's agonizing screams. The boy puts an end to her screams by tearing out the girl's windpipe with nothing but his teeth, before he spits it out onto the nearby ground with a stream of blood. He then sets his sights on the girl's friend as he chases her into the woods off screen. Her screams are eventually heard in the distance.

* * *

A grenade goes off, turning 4 students into a shower of gore as their guts, blood and severed body parts slam into the walls of a burning house.

* * *

A girl jumps out of a tree and snaps her neck with a noose she tied around herself.

* * *

The dead body of a boy is shown. His corpse is held upright due to a spear that has impaled through his face and into the side of a house behind him.

* * *

A girl screams as she shoots her boyfriend in the chest three times with a Beretta M9 handgun, before it clicks, signifying that it is empty. The boy still lives however and is choking on his own blood, before his girlfriend finishes him off with several hard blows to the head with the butt of the handgun.

* * *

These violent scenes play on and on for an extended period of time, before the screen finally fades to black, while the footage still plays.


	2. Student List

Teacher: Elizabeth Kalarjian

Boy 1 Ryker Prather

Girl 1 Koryn Baker

Boy 2 Tanner "Ian" Phillips

Girl 2 Carly Stillwell

Boy 3 Willis Wayne Beckridge

Girl 3 Raven Lynn White

Boy 4 Andrew James St. John

Girl 4 Katrina Lillian Evans

Boy 5 Zero Dugas

Girl 5 Anya Marie Bradbury

Boy 6 Trent Parker

Girl 6 Jill Walker

Boy 7 Tyler Alexander Pierson

Girl 7 Krystal Mckenna

Boy 8 Xavier Iderik

Girl 8 Esther Rodriguez

Boy 9 Ryan O'Reily

Girl 9 Alice Eleanore Jackson

Boy 10 Arkin Walker

Girl 10 Kady Noel Hagen

Boy 11 Trevor Forrest Weiland

Girl 11 Nya Marie De La Fuentes

Boy 12 Jack Campbell

Girl 12 Axelle Marie Hodder

Boy 13 Dylan Lewis

Girl 13 Georgina Hall

Boy 14 Gavril Voronov

Girl 14 Holly Bradford

Boy 15 Lawrence Dean Greggory

Girl 15 Tawny Louisa Curtis

Boy 16 Brandon Dawn

Girl 16 Lourdes Touvier

Boy 17 Ben Wides

Girl 17 Shanti Lowe

Boy 18 Charlie Klim

Girl 18 Samara Wallace

Boy 19 Fletcher Daniel

Girl 19 Hailey Jackson

Boy 20 Bryce Taylor

Girl 20 Carrie Parker

Boy 21 Vison Matthews

Girl 21 Brooke Carter


	3. Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

We pan high above Fallcreek State High School, which is where our story begins. Fallcreek High is rooted deep in the center of Fallcreek, taking up almost an entire block to itself as it runs parallel with numerous shops and homes that occupy several of the town's busiest streets. These streets are currently being traversed by both adults going about their errands, and by students who are enjoying their lunch breaks. Back at the school however, many of the students are spending their lunch breaks getting ready for the upcoming class trip, which is set to take place as soon as lunch ends. The trip is a special reward organized by the school board for both Classes A and B, classes made up of both Junior's and Senior's aged 16-18. The lucky students will be spending four luxurious days relaxing and shopping in a major city, which is located 6 hours away from Fallcreek.

All expenses for the trip are being covered by the school, as a way to show the students that the school is grateful for a good year, and that they want those of them which are graduating in three weeks to enjoy their final weeks of freedom before entering the world of adulthood. For Class A, this week will be remembered as one of the greatest of their lives as they put all the pressures of tests and exams behind them and make beautiful memories with their friends while making the most of the time they all get to spend together. For Class B however, these next few days will be remembered as ones of horror, agony, heartbreak, pain, misery, torment, torture and death, for in less than four days, most of the students in Class B will be dead...

Fallcreek High itself is an almost respectable establishment. Well, about as respectable as a public high school can be. It's doors are open to students of all backgrounds and all are treated equally by the staff, no matter of who they are. Many of the students however have a certain distaste for each other, and it's rare that a day goes by without at least one fight or argument taking place in the halls of the school. For every rivalry there is a friendship however, and numerous memories have been made at Fallcreek High, both good and bad. Whether it was the time a group of Freshman completely blocked Mr. Carter's parked van in place with bike racks, or the time Stacy Kimble fell off stage during a performance of The Crucible and had to be rushed to hospital after breaking her arm in the fall, Fallcreek High's students will look back on their time spent there fondly. Most of them will anyway.

We cut through several shots of the school, it's grounds and it's students. Jocks are messing around on the football field. Cheerleaders practicing. Nerds are in the library studying. Outcasts are hidden in toilet stalls, smoking cigarettes. Teachers are in their staff rooms, counting down the days until they can get rid of their students. A few of the students of Class B are already packed and ready to go, standing out near the front of the school, waiting for the bus to arrive. On the social order side of things, everything is how it should be at Fallcreek High.

A football sails through the air for a few seconds, before it perfectly falls into the hands of Ryan O'Reily, the school's muscular Quarterback and #1 douchebag. Ryan lets out a massive roar as he performed what he would call another perfect receive, before he skillfully tosses the ball to one of his football buddies. Not in the middle of a game but still wearing his football jacket none the less, Ryan is simply killing time with his jock buddies out on the school's football field while also trying to show off to the girls who watch from the bleachers. Like usual, Ryan doesn't give credit to who threw the pass, and instead rants on about his own playing ability. In this instance it was Ryan's teammate Brandon Dawn, a former victim of Ryan's bullying before he turned his life around and became a fit, muscular Jock. Brandon still keeps to himself though and harbors a resentment towards Ryan and most of his Jock buddies for how they used to treat him and how they still treat others.

"Did you see that baby?!" Ryan yells out to the girls, his homegrown Irish accent always intact.

A few of the girls swoon and cheer at Ryan's antics, fueling his massive ego even further, while a few do their best to ignore him. One of these girls is Anya Marie Bradbury, who can only roll her eyes at Ryan. Anya is nothing short of stunning. She's slim, pretty, blonde and being the head cheerleader means she makes her way around the school in her uniform more often than not, much to the delight of guy's like Ryan. But, Anya isn't a stereotype and she is anything but a girly-girl. She would much rather hang out with the boys instead of the girls, with the exception of her best friend Katrina Lillian Evans, who currently sits next to her on the bleachers. Katrina, or Kat, as she likes to be called, is a tomboyish brunette, who while pretty, exudes toughness more than she does sexiness.

"I think he likes you, you know". Katrina informs her friend, referring to Ryan.

"You think?" Anya replies, unsure.

Ryan catches the football once again, and triumphantly points at Anya.

"This one's for you baby!" Ryan yells as he tosses the ball once more, this time to one of his team mates, Willis Wayne Beckridge, a popular African-American who tries to be friends with everyone. Though his first name is Willis, everyone tends to call him Wayne instead, even his own parents.

Both Anya and Katrina sigh and make gagging noises at the same time, before giggling to themselves.

"Well I think that pretty much confirms it. Hook in Anya! Maybe you can become his bimbo for this week." Katrina jokes with her friend, winking as she does so.

"No thanks. I would much rather drop out of school than be forced to date that meat headed Leprechaun." Anya replies as she messes around with her friend.

"If you say so. Want me to take care of him for you?" Katrina asks as she cracks her knuckles, anxious to use some of her Mixed Martial Arts training.

"You don't have to worry about it Kat. I can take care of myself. Remember?" Anya says with a laugh.

"Ah yes. Who can forget the time little young cheerleader Anya Bradbury dropped a senior linebacker flat on his ass for harassing her little brother?"

"Not the linebacker, that's for sure."

The two girls giggle together once again before Katrina stretches out on the bleachers and groans.

"So I'm over watching these guys. Wanna split? We should probably start getting ready for the bus anyway." Katrina says as she lets out a yawn.

"Sure. I should probably check up on Daniel anyway, to make sure he's gonna be alright here while we're on the trip". Anya replies as she gets to her feet.

"Over-protective big sister to the rescue!" Katrina calls out as she shoots her fist into the air.

Anya gives Katrina the middle finger with a cheeky look as she starts to descend from the bleachers with Katrina following her. As they get to the bottom row, they pass by two of the few girls that Anya and Katrina can both stand. Koryn Baker, a gorgeous Korean-American girl who is the school's star basketball player, and Nya Marie De La Fuentes, a trendy and fashionable half African-American, half Spanish girl sit together, killing time before the bus arrives for their departure. They notice Anya and Katrina leaving and call out to them.

"Are you two leaving?" Nya calls out, putting her hand over her eyes to block out the sun.

"Yeah, we've still got some stuff we need to do before we leave. We'll see you on the bus okay?" Anya calls back.

"Sure thing sweetie. See you there!" Koryn yells, her eyes never leaving the sight in front of her as she waves goodbye to the two girls.

What Koryn is staring at is in fact Wayne, her loving boyfriend. After tossing the ball to one of the other footballers, he looks back at his girlfriend and smiles. Koryn waves at Wayne as she gives him a cheeky look. He is caught off-guard and startled when the ball hits him hard in the chest however, though he manages to catch it before it hits the ground.

"Wake up Wayne! There'll be plenty of time for poontang later man!" Ryan yells out, cocky as always.

Wayne looks away from Koryn and sighs, clearly annoyed. He aggressively throws the ball back at Ryan, who barely manages to catch it. Ryan looks around himself to make sure that none of the girls watching saw him nearly fumble the ball.

"YOU'RE SHIT RYAN!" An unknown voice yells out from the distance.

"WHO THE FUCK SAID THAT!?" Ryan screams, as he throws the ball to the ground, frantically looking around for the culprit.

"AH! THEY'RE AFTER ME LUCKY CHARMS!" A different voice yells out, doing their best to mock Ryan's Irish accent.

"SHUT...SHUT THE FUCK UP" Ryan awkwardly yells back, trying, but failing to hide his accent.

Ryan spots one of his classmates, Charlie Klim, walking away from where the Jocks were hanging out with his backpack slung over his shoulder.

"YO KLIM! WAS IT YOU, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!?" Ryan yells as he angrily jogs after Charlie.

Charlie, a quiet guy who is often a target of Ryan's attacks, notices the large jock coming after him and runs away into the school in an effort to avoid another beating at the hands of his tormentor.

* * *

Tanner "Ian" Phillips and Trent Parker sit huddled together underneath the bleachers, doing their best to contain their laughter as they watch Ryan run off in the opposite direction, though they do feel a little bit bad for Charlie. Lucky for Ian and Trent, the culprits, Ryan was unable to see them. When they decide that he is far enough away to not hear them, they both crack up with laughter and roll around on the ground in hysterics. After a few minutes they get up off the ground and start watching Ryan again.

"You know he'd kill us if he found us right?" Ian asks as he starts laughing again.

"I wouldn't worry about Ryan. He's usually too busy looking at himself in the mirror to be looking for anyone else anyway." Trent replies as he lights a joint in his mouth, one of several that he has already had today.

Trent takes a deep puff from the joint before passing it over to Ian, who is still chuckling. Trent exhales blissfully, while Ian quickly takes a puff of his own. Remarkably, nobody has noticed the stream of smoke that is slowly rising out of the bleachers, as the pair have been blazing away beneath it for quite a while. While they have hidden spots all over the school to get high, nothing beats the bleachers for them. They get to sit on some grass, get some sun, some fresh air, and sometimes they even get front row seats to cheerleading practice. They pass the joint around in silence before Trent thinks to ask Ian something.

"So I forgot to ask before..." Trent says as he takes a big draw, then exhales. "Are we all good on supplies for the trip?"

Ian smiles and grabs his backpack from next to him, and places it in his lap. He quickly unzips the bag, causing a huge amount of weed, Cheetos and fruit roll-ups to spill out onto the floor.

"We're good." Ian replies as he chuckles.

Trent raises his hands to the heavens as though he is about to praise some sort of weed god, while Ian simply rips open a bag of Cheetos and ferociously goes to town on them. Trent lowers his hands and points at Ian, who ceases his munching of the Cheetos.

"Out of a scale of 1 to 10, what is your favourite colour of the alphabet?" Trent asks seriously.

"Yes." Ian replies, a couple of Cheetos falling out of his mouth as he does so.

Trent smiles back at his friend.

"Dude, same as me." Trent responds as he shoves an entire fruit roll-up into his mouth.

* * *

A teenage boy sits by himself in Fallcreek High's deserted music room. His name is Bryce Taylor, and he is currently in the process of strumming along with an acoustic guitar, doing his best to come up with an original song. He strums one of the guitar's strings several times, playing the same note over and over again, trying to decide whether he likes it or not. He decides that he doesn't, so he sighs and runs his hand through his messy dark blonde hair.

Bryce is a charming young man, though he often finds it difficult to express how he feels, which is apparent in his current predicament of trying to compose a song. Bryce is a huge music fan, and is actually quite a talented musician and performer, but for reasons unknown to him, he is having major problems with this song in particular. For this isn't any ordinary song, but rather one dedicated to someone close to Bryce. Bryce knows how he feels about this person, but he just can't find the right way to show it, much to his disappointment.

After adjusting his glasses, Bryce leans forward in his chair, guitar in hand, and starts to go through what he has for the song so far, for about the tenth time today. He grips his guitar pick in between his fingers and begins to strum the strings, playing the start of his song which he has memorized. After about 20 seconds of solo guitar, he begins to sing along to the melody, showcasing his beautiful singing voice, and the Southern twang that exists within it.

"You saved me, like you somehow owed me. Passion now flowing in my veins. Breathless days. I'd sit alone in silence. You brought me sun, and took away the rain." Bryce sings as he finds himself getting lost within the song, all of his creative juices flying.

"Honestly it's not a phase. Now I stand, where before I couldn't raise. Even a smile just to get me through the days. You pick me up, you pick me up."

Bryce ceases singing as he plays a riff that he created to compliment the ending of the chorus of the song, before making his way into the next verse that he written.

"You took me, set my world on fire. Red stop lights, you only see green. No mistakes. You march on like-"

"What are you doing?" A friendly female voice asks from behind Bryce.

Bryce stops playing his song immediately and almost leaps out of his seat from surprise, having not heard the person enter the room over his own singing and guitar playing. He turns around, and to his horror realizes that it is his friend and classmate Esther Rodriguez who has entered the room, wearing her Band uniform. Normally Bryce would be more than happy to see Esther, but when she walks in on him practicing a song that he is planning on using to confess his love for her, it's more than a little awkward. He gets up and faces Esther, hiding the guitar behind his back, as if he believes that will somehow do something.

"Um, hey Esther." Bryce says, clearing his throat and doing his best to form an awkward smile.

"Hey Bry. Mrs. Arditto told me I might be able to find you in here. Just thought I would come and make sure you're all set for the trip. Have you get everything packed?" Esther asks, smiling back at Bryce with her kind smile.

"Yeah, I left my suitcase with the others in the gym, and I've just got to grab some stuff from my locker before we head out."

"Alright, well we better go grab it now then. We don't want to be late, and besides, the earlier we are the better chance we have of grabbing good seats on the bus."

"Sure thing Jazzy."

Esther smiles as Bryce refers to her by her nickname, one that was bestowed upon her by their music teacher, Mrs. Arditto, after she displayed her unknown talent for performing Jazz music when it was their topic for the semester. When one looks at Esther, it's not hard to see why Bryce has a thing for her. She's a sweet, cute girl with great, exotic skin owed to the fact that she is originally from Puerto Rico. She moved to Fallcreek two summers ago to live with her uncle, after a change of government in her home country caused her parents to send her away for her own safety. One of the main reasons Bryce and Esther became friends, aside from their shared love for Music and Band class, is the fact that they both moved to Fallcreek at the same time. Bryce moved to the quiet town after his family decided to sell their farm back in Louisiana, deciding on moving somewhere up north for a change of scenery. Both being new kids, the pair connected immediately and soon became friends.

"Well, let's get going then." Esther says as she heads back towards the exit door. She pauses when she reaches it and looks back at Bryce.

"Oh, by the way. What was that song you were playing just before?"

"Oh that? That was just me messing around. It's nothing important. Just a work in progress." Bryce claims as he fumbles around with his guitar in his hand.

"It was nice." Esther replies as she smiles at Bryce, before exiting the room.

Bryce looks down at his feet, wanting to serenade Esther right at that very moment, before ultimately deciding not to. He instead follows Esther out of the room, his trusty guitar in his hand.

* * *

"MEAT IS MURDER!"

Georgina Hall stands powerfully on top of an elevated area that has been erected inside the outdoor eating area in the school grounds. Georgina, or Georgie, as she much prefers to be called (call her Georgina and you will live to regret it), is the current Class President of Class B, and she treats the position as though she was running an entire country, and not just a class of teenagers. Georgie's choice of clothing is representative of this, as she is always seen in what most people would consider to be professional, business attire. She will sometimes even come to school dressed in a suit, much to the surprise of her teachers. Georgie is a strict vegetarian however and a firm believer in animal rights, so she will never ever wear any clothes that have profited or been made from the death of animals, and she will harshly ridicule anyone who does. She once threw an entire bucket of red paint over a woman she saw wearing a fur coat at the mall. Nobody has ever found out where she acquired the paint from.

Georgie will almost always be seen wearing glasses also. She only needs to wear them for reading, but she chooses to wear them as often as she can, as she believes that they make her look more professional and that they will cause people to take her more seriously. At the moment, Georgie is wearing her glasses while holding a megaphone in her hand, in an effort to draw in a crowd of people and start a rally around herself. Located behind Georgie is a large board on a stand, with various charts and pictures placed all over it. Georgie has no concern for the squeamish, as most of the pictures contain graphic images of dead animals both on farms and in factories.

"WE ALL NEED TO WAKE UP PEOPLE! FAST FOOD CHAINS AND FACTORIES PROFIT FROM THE DEATHS OF MILLIONS OF INNOCENT ANIMALS EVERY YEAR, AND HERE WE ALL ARE SUPPORTING THEM BY FEEDING THEM ALL OF OUR HARD EARNED MONEY! WE NEED TO OPEN OUR EYES AND STOP THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR NOW!" Georgie screams into the megaphone at the top of her lungs.

Georgie notices one of her classmates, Dylan Lewis, sitting by himself, eating a chicken wing. Dylan is a bit of a hyper and energetic guy. The type who will constantly talk to people and bug them, until they eventually get annoyed of him and tell him to get lost. At the moment though, he is more interested in his chicken wing and isn't paying any attention to Georgie at all. Georgie hops off of the elevated platform, megaphone in hand, and storms over to Dylan. She reaches his table and stands over him. Dylan is about to take a bit out of his chicken wing, when he notices that Georgie is standing directly over him. He looks up at her, and sees her staring at him with a menacing glare.

"Can I...help you?" Dylan asks nervously.

Georgie responds by slapping the chicken wing out of his hands, causing it to fall onto the floor and roll under the table. Dylan dives after it in failed attempt to catch it. Georgie points down at Dylan and looks around herself, making sure that all eyes are on her.

"This, is what's wrong with today's society! We think it's alright to just sit on our lazy asses and treat ourselves to the carcasses of poor, dead animals! Well not anymore! I'm making it my personal mission as Class President of Class B to get meat taken off the menu!" Georgie yells as she raises her fist into the air, to the sound of a very low applause.

Dylan jumps back up and confronts Georgie.

"Bitch! I just paid for that!" Dylan yells at Georgie, obviously annoyed.

Georgie spins around and points her megaphone at Dylan's face.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY ANIMALS PAID WITH THEIR LIVES JUST TO SUPPLY YOU WITH THIS FOOD THAT YOU DON'T NEED?!" Georgie screams into the megaphone, causing Dylan to fall back onto the bench in shock.

Georgie, without missing a beat, spins back around and points to her #2 and closest thing to a friend, Zero Dugas, who is standing on the area's elevated podium.

"Tell them Zero!" Georgie yells to her friend.

Without a megaphone of his own, Zero is instead forced to simply yell out various facts about what it really takes to make the average fast food item. For lack of a better word, Zero is a hipster. He wears all of the typical fashion associated with that label (plaid shirts, skinny jeans, scarves, etc.), though he doesn't dress that way for the attention. It's just his style. Zero is pretty much the female version of Georgie, though he is probably a tad less confrontational, though he isn't afraid to get into people's faces either. Together, Georgie and Zero lead a student group named United Pacifism, which was formed to protest against violations of both human and animal rights, as well as against war in general.

Georgie is starting to suspect that Zero has developed feelings for her, much to her own disappointment, as she sees Zero as being nothing more than a friend. Besides, Georgie isn't interested in love or relationships. Instead, she focuses all of her energy on her beliefs and her work with United Pacifism. Georgie won't rest until she has brought down what she defines as being a corrupt government regime that runs the United States. In her spare time, she dreams of becoming the first ever female President of America, a goal that she yearns to accomplish one day. After Zero is done reading out the facts that he prepared on some palm cards, Georgie jumps back onto the stage and begins speaking with her megaphone again.

One of the students who has been eating in the cafeteria, Ben Wides, can only sit stunned at the facts that Zero reads out. In a rare sight, Ben pushes his steak sandwich away from himself, refusing to eat the rest of it out of disgust. Ben is cursed with being overweight, something that some of his crueler classmates love to make fun of. As usual, Ben sits by himself at lunch, having not been able to make a single friend throughout his short time at Fallcreek High. Sitting next to him instead is his backpack, which he has unknowingly left unzipped. Shanti Lowe, one of the girls that Ben shares a couple of classes with, notices this and uses the opportunity to quietly walk past Ben and steal his wallet from within the bag, with Ben none the wiser. Shanti casually walks off with the wallet without being spotted, due to the fact that everybody else is too distracted by Georgie and Zero's speech.

"NOW! AS EVERYONE KNOWS ME AND ZERO ARE BOTH ATTENDING THE CLASS TRIP LATER TODAY! DON'T FRET, AS WE WILL BE KEEPING UP THE GOOD FIGHT WHEREVER WE ARE AND I HAVE ALREADY PREPARED SOME SLIDE SHOWS THAT I AM PLANNING ON SHOWING TO SOME-"

* * *

A drift of smoke drifts out from under a cubicle in the Girl's toilets, much to the disdain of Holly Bradford, who is currently in the process of applying makeup on herself, using one of the dirty mirrors above the sink basins to make sure that she looks as perfect as she can be, something she does during every lunch break. Holly does her best to ignore the smell of cigarettes that drifts from the near-by cubicle, but after awhile the horrible smell becomes too much for her. She makes a loud gagging noise, causing her to smudge her lipstick. She squeals and throws the lipstick down into the sink. She then turns around and begins shouting at the person in the cubicle.

"Excuse me! Can't you take your filthy, disgusting habit somewhere else! I for one do not want to die because of your bad habits, and I shouldn't be allowed to be treated like this! The only reason I'm stuck at this stupid, cheap school with the likes of you is because this goddamn town only has one school, and god forbid it's a public one. Now, are you going to get out or butt it out, or do I have to go report you to the principal? I'll do it you know! Father's good friends with him in fact!" Holly yells, annoyed at the fact that she isn't getting her own way for once.

The only response that Holly gets from the person in the cubicle is another a drag of the cigarette, followed by another cloud of smoke that wifts under the cubicle in Holly's direction. Holly growls as she begins banging on the cubicle door.

"EXCUSE ME! WHO DO YOU THINK I AM!? I AM THE HOLLY BRADFORD! MY FATHER PRETTY MUCH OWNS THIS TOWN, AND IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMON SENSE, YOU WILL WHAT I DAMN WELL TELL YOU TO DO! I COULD BE ASTHMATIC FOR ALL YOU KNOW!" Holly yells at the top of her lungs.

Holly is still ignored by the person in the cubicle, who continues to casually smoke their cigarette in silence. Getting more and more annoyed, Holly attempts to take a peek through the side of the door to the cubicle to see if she can make out who the person is. But, unfortunately for Holly, as soon as she puts her eye to the door, the person inside blows a large wave of smoke into her eye, causing her to leap back and cry out in pain. Holly shrieks and bangs on the door again, before she grabs her expensive purse off of the basin and runs out of the toilet block, on the verge of tears.

"I'm telling a teacher!" Can be made out in the distance as Holly runs away.

After Holly's departure, we pan over the top of the toilet cubicle, and it is revealed that the smoker inside is actually a teacher herself. Her name is Elizabeth Kalarjian, or Ms. Kalarjian, as her students know her. Elizabeth seems to be greatly enjoying her cigarette, not letting Holly's earlier antics faze her. Elizabeth has to deal with Holly all day round, so she thought she could at least get away from her in a toilet stall. She was wrong. In an effort to quell teen smokers, the school board has forbidden all staff members from smoking on school grounds, much to the annoyance of many of Fallcreek High's teachers and staff. Many have had to find alternative methods, whether it's investing in nicotine patches, smoking in their cars while parked around the corner, or like Elizabeth, hiding and smoking in the toilet stalls just like they did when they were younger. Elizabeth spent half of her teenage years smoking in the toilet blocks back at school, so if anything it's a shot of nostalgia for her. While she mainly works at Fallcreek High as both an English and History teacher, she also has the 'honor' of being the form teacher for Class B, which means she has been selected to accompany Class B on the trip, as well being responsible for their well-being throughout the entire trip.

Elizabeth takes one last, long draw of her cigarette, enjoying the remaining free time she has before she is forced to spend the next four days with her students. _I'm sure it's going to be one hell of a time..._ Elizabeth thinks to herself, as she stares off into nothingness, well aware of the fate that lies in store for her class. Deciding that she has spent enough time in the cubicle, Elizabeth stubs her cigarette out on the cubicle wall, her fourth for the lunch break, and throws it into the toilet bowl with the rest of the stubs. She knocks the lid down and pulls the lever, flushing away the evidence of her rule breaking into oblivion. She then scoops up a canvas bag up off the floor which is full of some of her personal belongings, and snatches a deodorant can out of it. Elizabeth smothers herself head to toe with the sweet smelling substance in an effort to disguise her bad habit even further.

Once this is done, Elizabeth sits down on the closed toilet and holds her right hand to her forehead. She sighs, and moves her hand to the right side of her face, where a small, deep scar resides. The origins of her scar remain unknown, as each time one of her students or her fellow teachers questions her about it, she will effectively dodge the question. All that is known about it is that it was caused by a traumatic event from her past that continues to haunt her to this day. Elizabeth runs her right index finger over her scar repeatedly, as though it calms her, and sighs once more. _And you really thought things would be better here than in England..._ Elizabeth finally rises off of the toilet, and stashes her packet of cigarettes deep into the bottom of the canvas bag. She then slings the bag over her shoulder, unlocks the cubicle door, and exits out into the basin area.

Elizabeth walks over to the nearest basin and washes her hands. She then splashes some of the cold water onto her face in an effort to freshen herself up. She then stares at her own reflection in the dirty mirror. Elizabeth can't help but feel down about herself as she stares at her frowning, disheveled face. The frown has become a permanent fixture of Elizabeth's otherwise pretty face, much to the uneasiness of those who know her personally. Elizabeth breaks her gaze with her mirrored doppelganger and instead notices the expensive roll-on lipstick Holly left in the sink. She quickly picks it up, stares at it, then winds it so the lipstick itself emerges from the top. She then takes the lipstick and uses it to draw a large red smile on the mirror, right over her reflection's frown.

Elizabeth stares at her reflection once again, this time with the fake red smile being worn on her mirrored face. It somewhat makes Elizabeth look like the representation of a clown, which is ironic considering the mask Elizabeth herself wears in order to keep those she works with from knowing much about her own personal life. Elizabeth starts to grow angry at her fake reflection and tosses the lipstick hard into the wall a couple of feet to her right in a fit of rage. She then finally exits the bathroom with her canvas bag in hand, ready to face the events that will change her life, and the lives of her 42 students, forever.

* * *

A locker door opens, revealing the face of Bryce as he sorts through it's contents.

"How can you not agree that their first album is their best?" Bryce asks nicely, as he moves stuff around inside his locker.

"Don't get me wrong, their first is a great album. But the musical maturity and songwriting really improves in their follow-up records." Esther responds as she leans on the locker next to Bryce's.

"I agree there, but the raw talent that was showcased in their first album is just really rare to find these days." Bryce says as he smiles at Esther.

"Well I think I'm looking at some of that rare, raw musical talent right now." Esther tells Bryce, as she smiles back at him.

Bryce is caught off-guard by Esther's compliment, and he stares down at his shoes as his face turns bright red from embarrassment. Esther giggles at Bryce and playfully pats him on the back.

"So what are you looking for anyway?" Esther asks, as she peeks inside of Bryce's locker.

Just as Esther finishes her sentence, Bryce finally finds what he is looking for and grabs it out of the locker.

"This." Bryce replies as he hands Esther a Mix CD, which is labeled "Jams for Jazzy."

"A Mix CD? How very retro of you Bryce." Esther responds as she smiles at the CD.

"I'm not sure if people even use CD's anymore, but you got me into The Cars so I thought it would only be fair if I returned the favour and gave you some new music that you might like."

"Well that's very sweet of you Bry."

Esther hugs Bryce in a friendly manner, and for that moment Bryce is content, as he wishes for the moment to never end. Unfortunately for Bryce, it does end, as Esther's phones goes off, playing an obscure song from the 80's to make Esther aware to the fact that someone is trying to call her. Esther quickly breaks her embrace with Bryce and grabs her phone out of her pocket. She smiles at the name that appears on her screen and answers it.

"Hey Curt! How are you?" Esther asks the person on the other end, a wide smile appearing on her face.

Bryce's heart sinks as he watches Esther happily converse with one of the main reasons why Bryce has never asked her out yet. The one they call Curt. Curt is a co-worker of Esther's who works with her at a local grocery store in town. Esther currently has a major crush on Curt, though she hasn't had the nerve to ask him out yet either. Bryce knows it's only a matter of time until she asks him out though, and he is currently resigned to being the kind friend who keeps his own feelings in the dark for the sake of those around him. Bryce sighs, and not wanting to listen to Esther be cute with Curt anymore over the phone, he instead starts to look around at what surrounds the two of them in the outdoors locker area. The lockers are all lined up against each other on one wall, while the adjacent wall is non-existent, instead being a large entrance out onto the school's oval. Above them is a roof, though a somewhat open one. It doesn't connect to the wall, instead being held up a number of poles on either end. The roof is adjacent with the roof of a near-by classroom block.

Bryce stares at the students that are around him. Some are sorting through their lockers, others are descending from a near-by staircase, while some are just having conversations in the middle of the walkway. Bryce then notices a group of students who are sitting together in the space located underneath the staircase, seemingly in an effort to escape the gaze of those around them. While Bryce doesn't know any of them personally, he recognizes them as being what some might dub 'The Outcasts'. None of them are really friends with each other, but they will sometimes sit together in silence as a mutual respect runs between them.

Raven Lynn White is the one who is sitting the closest to Bryce. Raven is a hot-headed goth girl, who has often been a victim of bullying at Fallcreek. Bryce knows that there is an intense hatred that dwells deep inside of Raven, so he does his best to stay out of her way.

Sitting next to Raven is Xavier Iderik, a boy who also shares the resemblance of looking like a goth. Out of everyone in the group, Xavier is the most mysterious, as he will hardly ever speak to anyone and has often been spotted late at night spending time in cemetery's. Xavier particularly sends chills down Bryce's spine.

Next is Trevor Forrest Weiland, who is the most sociable member of the group. Unlike the others, he has a few friends around the school, though is still considered an outcast due to his 'Emo' style of attire and his homosexuality. He has developed a talent for both blackmail and manipulation, which has served him well in the past with getting revenge on those who have hurt him and those he cares for, as well as being a successful way for him to get what he wants.

Sitting across from Trevor is Krystal Mckenna, a depressed and edgy girl who is in the process of facing her demons. At the age of 13, she was lured into a world of drugs, sex, stealing, self-harming and partying. A penchant for sleeping with older men led to Krystal being labeled a slut by her peers. Krystal still struggles with these addictions as she attempts to somehow escape it all and become a better person.

The last member of the group is Kady Noel Hagen, a black girl from Saskatchewan, Canada, who also has Norwegian, South African and Dutch ancestry. Kady's appearance of being entirely dressed in black with snake bite piercings, a nose piercing and a navel piercing might give one the impression that she is aiming to be a goth, but this isn't true. Kady's style is simply Kady. She's a naturally witty and blunt girl who doesn't care for the trivialities of other people's lives. She would much rather spend her time listening to underground metal bands while researching about Norwegian serial killers, or sometimes even taking photos of Fallcreek with her treasured Canon camera. Kady, like Trevor, does actually have a few friends around the school, but she tends to sit with the outcasts as though she enjoys their silent company.

Although the five students are all unique in their own ways, they all share the common ability to unnerve Bryce, which is enhanced by the fact that they are all staring back at him. Bryce gulps, and decides to break his gaze and instead looks back at Esther, who is still on the phone to Curt. Bryce retreats into his own thoughts as thoughts of Esther and Curt together flood his mind, something that plagues him often, much to his own distaste. Bryce usually does something proactive to help take his mind off of the subject, but at the current time he has been provided with little options as he waits for Esther to finish her phone call. Luckily for Bryce, a reprieve comes from an unexpected source as a loud bang from above startles him, clearing his mind of everything else. He quickly looks up in fear, only to discover that the noise from above in fact originated from the roof, caused by his classmate Carly Stillwell jumping onto it. Carly, an Asian-American girl, is an avid fan of Parkour, and can usually be found traversing along rooftops and other strange places located around Fallcreek. She is gone from Bryce's sight as she does a flip over onto the next rooftop, leaving Bryce to smile and wonder just how she hasn't been caught yet by one of Fallcreek High's many staff members.

"Excuse me! Get out the way please!" Fletcher Daniel yells as he runs past Bryce, nearly knocking the boy over.

Fletcher is a shy boy, mainly due to the fact that he feels insignificant around his classmates due to his small size, being the shortest student in his class by far. Due to his shyness he has yet to make a friend at Fallcreek High, often sitting by himself. The fact that he is very clumsy and has a habit of messing things up is also a cause of loneliness. Fletcher dodges a few more students past Bryce as he runs through the hall with his over-sized backpack weighing him down.

"Move please! I'm already running late!" Fletcher yells again as he squeezes in between two large boys.

As he continues running down the hall, Fletcher runs past his classmate Vison Matthews, who quickly sticks his leg out in front of Fletcher, causing the small boy to trip up and crash directly into a near-by trash can. Fletcher flips over the trash can and crashes hard into the concrete floor as the trash can falls over and covers Fletcher in both trash and thrown away food. Many students laugh at Fletcher and take photos of him with their camera phones. Bryce can only grimace at the poor boy's misfortune. Fletcher turns in Vison's direction, and is about to give him a piece of his mind, before he realizes who in fact it was who tripped him. Vison, or Vice, which is his nickname, is well known through out Fallcreek as being a violent racist homophobe who will not hesitate to dish out a vicious beating to those who get on his bad side. The fact that his arms and back are covered in tattoos does little to make him any less threatening. Vice walks over to Fletcher and stands over the boy, staring down at him with a menacing glare. Fletcher decides to let this one go and quickly brushes the trash off of himself, before jumping back onto his feet and running further away down the walkway.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" A girl in a cheerleading uniform screams out from the left of Bryce, holding her nose, which is gushing with blood, as she does so.

Bryce turns towards the commotion, intrigued by what might be occurring while Esther is still on the phone to Curt, apparently not having run out of things to talk about yet.

The cheerleader is standing in the middle of a circle of students, who are all jumping up and down cheering.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" The crowd cheers out as they close in on the cheerleader.

Standing across from the cheerleader in the small circle amongst the students is the cause of her bloodied nose, Brooke Carter. Brooke casually stands with her fists clenched, the cheerleader's blood tripping off of one of her hands. While mostly being a loner, Brooke is regarded as being one of the most entertaining students at Fallcreek High, as she is bound to get into at least one fight per week, much to her own enjoyment. While her growing criminal record would say otherwise, Brooke isn't necessarily a bad person, as she tends to only get into fights with those who have the foolishness to bully her. In this case, the culprit is the vain cheerleader Judy Greenberg, who decided to call Brooke an 'ugly dyke' to her face, despite the fact that Brooke is straight and actually quite pretty.

"LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO MY NOSE! YOU'VE RUINED MY FACE YOU STUPID COW!" Judy howls in pain as tears begin to form in her eyes.

Brooke can only laugh at Judy's insult.

"Sweetie, you're face was ruined long before I touched it." Brooke claims, before she charges at Judy.

Judy is unprepared as Brooke strafes to the side of her and astonishingly, leaps into the air and delivers a 360 spin kick to the side of Judy's head. The blow catches Judy entirely off-guard, and she is out cold before her head even collides with the steel locker next to her. She then falls to the ground like a sack of bricks as blood gushes out of her mouth with a few teeth floating out with the red stream. The crowd stands stunned at what they just witnessed, before eventually breaking out into a cheer as nobody makes an attempt to help Judy on the ground. Bryce feels as though he should do something, but before he can, Esther grabs his arm tightly, stopping him in his tracks. He turns to his friend, only to discover that her phone call has ended and that she is in fact staring at him with a sad expression on her face. Bryce immediately becomes worried for his friend.

"Esther? What's wrong?" Bryce asks, concerned.

"Curt's...Curt's dating someone." Esther replies, doing her best to stay strong.

"Oh Esther, I'm sorry."

Bryce does his best to console Esther, and decides to hug her, to which Esther happily obliges.

"I just really thought he liked me, you know?" Esther says into Bryce's ear as tears form in her eyes.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry this had to happen." Bryce says with genuine sympathy.

"I guess I'm just doomed to be alone forever..."

Bryce breaks their hug and stares Esther in the eyes.

"Don't say that Esther. You're an amazing girl, and one day you are going to make someone very happy." Bryce informs Esther, wishing to be that someone.

"Oh Bryce, you're too sweet. What did I ever do to deserve a friend like you?" Esther says as she feels herself cheering up.

Esther wipes her eyes and smiles at Bryce.

"We should probably get going. We don't want to miss the bus after all." Esther says as she walks past Bryce.

Bryce sighs, debating whether or not to tell Esther his true feelings once again. As per usual, he decides not to. He slams his locker shut, grabs his bag and guitar and follows after Esther as she makes her way to the front of the school.

* * *

Pierce McDowell grips the wheel tightly as he turns the steering wheel of his school bus, the same one he has been driving for the last 30 years. Sure, the bus has been remodeled and repaired several times over the years, but in Pierce's more than capable hands, it still feels like the same old rig he mastered his craft in all those years ago. Not only is Pierce the most experienced bus driver in the town of Fallcreek, but he is also the most respected. He treats absolutely everyone with kindness, leading the staff, students and people of Fallcreek to consider Pierce as being a well-respected member of the Fallcreek community.

At 65 years of age, Pierce is seen as something of a grandfather figure by some of the students who have been fortunate enough to ride on his bus over the years. Pierce has lived in Fallcreek all of his life, meaning most of Class B have known him their whole lives, either as their friendly bus driver or as a close family friend. Everyone in Fallcreek knows that there is no better person in the town to talk to about your problems than Pierce, as he never lays judgment on anyone and is accepting of everyone, no matter who they are. While he is a great confidant when it comes to other people's problems, he rarely speaks about his own. Pierce lost Beverly, his wife of 40 years, to illness just under a year ago. Her death shattered Pierce, as Pierce loved her more than anything else in the world, but he did his best to put up his usual friendly persona while out in public and left his depression for when he arrived back at home.

The people of Fallcreek greatly worried about Pierce, all doing their best to check up on him whenever they could, as well as bringing him home-made food and other gifts as a way to show their condolences while also letting him know how much the town cared about him. As usual though, Pierce assured everyone that he was fine and greatly appreciated their concern, not letting anyone know about how much Beverly's death affected him. To this day, Pierce is still haunted by her death. Pierce skillfully turns a corner in the bus and waves to Hannah Jones and her young daughter Sadie as they walk hand in hand down the sidewalk next to Pierce. Sadie, like most of Fallcreek's children love Pierce, as he treats them all like they are his own grandchildren and even volunteers as Santa Claus for the local mall every December. Pierce just wishes he could see his own grandchildren more often, as his 3 adult children (Oliver, Poppy and Vera) have all moved away from Fallcreek over the years. They all still keep in contact with Pierce however and visit him with their family's for every birthday and Christmas. Poppy even asked Pierce to move in with her after Beverly's death, but he kindly refused.

Pierce finally reaches the front of Fallcreek High, and parks behind the bus of his good friend Bud Kenner, who is in charge of transporting Class A on the trip, while Pierce has been given the duty of transporting Class B. Once he is in position and made sure he has arrived on time, Pierce kills the engine and slumps down into his chair. He sighs and wipes the sweat off his face with a near-by hand towel, well aware of what he is in fact transporting Class B too. The BR Act is something that Pierce is firmly against, and when three government officials showed up on his doorstep instructing him to deliver the students to a covert government checkpoint against their will, Pierce threw it back in their face. But when the three men showed Pierce photos of Oliver, Poppy, Vera and their families held hostage in an undisclosed location, he was left with little choice but to accept the government's horrible task. Pierce spots the students all grouped together near-by, eager to board the bus. Pierce can only do his best to keep his tears of shame at bay as he opens the bus door.

* * *

Elizabeth walks out towards the school's front entrance and the waiting bus, hoping that nobody can smell the cigarettes on her. As she makes her way over to her waiting students, who are all loading their suitcases into the bottom of the bus, she begins to count as many as she can, vaguely guessing whether or not everybody has arrived yet. Elizabeth loses count as she is distracted by the hungry growls of her stomach. She spent almost the entire lunch break smoking in the toilet block, foolishly forgetting to actually eat her lunch. She curses herself as she realizes that eating is forbidden on the school's newly renovated buses._ I don't know if I could keep anything down at the moment anyway..._ Elizabeth ponders as she watches a few of her students wave to her as she arrives. Elizabeth does her best to wave back. Elizabeth is a likable enough teacher at Fallcreek High. She isn't very energetic, or even talkative. But she doesn't give the kids a hard time, and pretty much lets them do whatever they want to. If some of her students don't want to learn, than that's their problem. Elizabeth simply does her best to teach those that are interested in her English and History classes.

"Mrs. K, this is...this is bus we catch?" One of Elizabeth's students, Gavril Voronov, asks her.

Gavril approaches Elizabeth from the side, who was unaware of his presence. Being 6'4, it would be hard to not spot the tall Russian teenager, but he seems to have a habit of staying quiet and blending into the background away from watchful eyes, a trait which has served him well in the past. This is only helped by the fact that he usually has his face and sandy blonde coloured hair hidden behind a Grey hoodie. Elizabeth turns to her student, and does her best to smile at him and answer his question.

"Yes, Gavril. This is the bus we will be boarding to leave on the trip. Make sure you have all of your belongings with you and that you grabbed your suitcase from the hall, as we will be leaving very soon." Elizabeth answers.

Gavril smiles and nods at his teacher as a sign of gratitude. Gavril is a bit of a loner at the school, due to the fact that he has only recently transferred there from his native Russia. He had no experience with the English language before moving to America with his father, so he has had to pick it up over time, meaning that making friends was a bit of a problem. He is getting better however, and despite the language barrier he is doing rather well in all of his classes due to his determined and resilient attitude. He has managed to make a few friends so far however, mainly Carrie Parker and Lourdes Touvier. Carrie and Lourdes have quickly become Gavril's best friends since his arrival and he spends more time with them then he does his widowed father, who he has a grudge against. Carrie is an intelligent, quiet redhead who is something of a hipster or an indie chick, while also dealing with the fact that she's an outed lesbian. Lourdes is a neat and proper girl from Quebec, Canada, who possesses a hidden wild side yearning for adventure and mayhem. Lourdes' father is the town mayor, so she is used to a privileged lifestyle due to her father's political ambitions, though she isn't a snob in the slightest. Lourdes was the only friend of Carrie's who stood by her after her homosexuality was made public, and together they adopted Gavril into their friendship, with the three becoming almost inseparable in the last couple of months.

"You know, you could have just asked us that Gav?" Carrie asks Gavril as she and Lourdes appear next to him.

"I know...I just figured I should just ask...tea-..teacher." Gavril responds, his limited English skills showing.

"Do you have any other questions Gavril?" Elizabeth asks, wanting to head towards the bus.

"No." Gavril responds quickly.

"Okay, well you should all grab your things. I'm going to make the announcement that we will be boarding now." Elizabeth says to the trio.

"Sure thing. Hey, Mrs. Kalarjian. Are you okay? You seem a bit off...no offense." Lourdes asks, concerned.

"Yes. I'm fine Lou. Thank you for asking." Elizabeth replies, faking a smile.

Elizabeth leaves the trio and makes her way to the bus, leaving the three friends to discuss their plans for the upcoming trip. Elizabeth avoids any contact with her students as she quickly makes it to the bus and climbs up the steps and stares at Pierce, who is staring at her with the same cold look that she currently has.

"Is everything prepared?" Elizabeth asks.

"Yeah, everything's sorted. Liz, I don't know if I can do this..." Pierce responds gloomily.

Elizabeth leans in close and looks at him sternly.

"Then you better make sure you can goddammit! I don't think I have to remind you what is at stake here, for both of us! Now just shut up and do your job. I'll do the rest. Make sure you look out for my signal." Elizabeth whispers angrily.

Elizabeth backs away from Pierce, who silently nods and then stares off into the distance, sadly. Elizabeth leaps out of the bus and stands with her back to the door. She looks over all the students that surround her and makes her announcement.

"Okay guys, listen up! Make sure you have everything with you and don't leave anything behind. The drive is going to take about four hours, though we will be making a pit stop about halfway there at a rest stop. However, I hope you have all gone to the bathroom before hand anyway. Now, on behalf of the staff of Fallcreek, I'd like to thank you all for another great year and let's make this trip a great one!" Elizabeth yells out, as students clap and cheer.

"Ms. Kalarjian!" A female student yells out, before they make their way through the crowd.

Georgie is revealed as she runs over to Elizabeth's side, panting.

"I was wondering if I could make an announcement of my own? Georgie asks.

"Sure, just make it quick." Elizabeth responds resignedly.

"Thank you."

Georgie turns to face her class, while a few groans are heard.

"As you know, millions of animals are killed each year so that our nation's people can get fatter and richer, while the poor innocent animals suffer. I'm here today to tell you it's wrong! IT'S WRONG! As your Class President, I have organized a student protest to take place on our trip, to be held at the headquarters of" Georgie announces, before she is cut off by a member of the crowd.

"WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP?!" Ryan yells out at the back of the crowd, to a few laughs from his classmates.

"FUCK YOU RYAN! IT'S PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO ARE RUINING THIS WORLD! MEAT IS MURDER! WE ALL NEED TO RISE UP" Georgie screams before she is finally silenced by Elizabeth who grabs the frantic girl by the arm and pushes her onto the bus.

Elizabeth then turns around and faces the rest of her class.

"Alright guys, let's go." Elizabeth says as she takes a seat on board the bus directly behind Pierce.

Tawny Louisa Curtis, a bullied overweight girl, is about to board the bus before she is stopped by someone who calls out her name to the right. She turns to the culprit and notices that it is Andrew James St. John, who is one of the few students at Fallcreek High who has always treated Tawny with kindness. Tawny smiles at Andrew and moves out of the way of the bus door and heads over to Andrew. Andrew is a kind young man who can never turn his back on someone in need, though some of his classmates have found it amusing to pigeonhole him as a nerd. He is also a budding photographer, and he currently has his camera in his hands.

"Hey Andrew..." Tawny says rather awkwardly.

"Hey Tawny..." Andrew responds, just as awkwardly.

An awkward silence takes place between the two. Tawny notices Jack Campbell, Andrew's best friend, standing next to him. Jack is a very brooding individual and will rarely speak to anyone, preferring instead to enjoy the silence. He actually used to be an outgoing teenager, that was until a recent tragic event changed him forever and made him into who he is today. Tawny recalls this event and feels sympathy for the young man. Jack, annoyed at his friend's silence, nudges him in the side with his elbow, shocking him into action.

"Oh yeah! Um, do you think I would be able to take your photo Tawny?" Andrew asks sheepishly.

"Um sure...Andrew..." Tawny responds, confused.

"Oh! I mean it's for the yearbook! I'm not taking photos of you for personal reasons or anything! I mean, not that I wouldn't want to! It's just, Ms. Kalarjian put me in charge of taking photos on the trip for the yearbook." Andrew says, embarrassed.

"Alright Andrew, it's fine, really. Do you just want to take a regular photo or?"

"Yeah yeah. Just a regular photo is fine. Ready?"

Tawny nods and smiles, while Andrew takes her photo with his own personal camera. After he takes it, he looks at his screen to make sure it turned out fine.

"How did it turn out?" Tawny asks.

"Good! Really good. Thanks for that Tawny." Andrew responds, smiling at the girl.

"You're welcome." Tawny says as she smiles back.

Another awkward silence occurs between the two.

"Well, I'll see you on the bus okay?" Tawny says as she makes her way back to the bus.

Andrew curses at himself for being so awkward with the girl he likes, while Jack simply stands in silence beside him. Tawny makes her way to the bus door and is about to enter before she looks back at Andrew and smiles once again. Andrew notices this and smiles back.

"Move it cow!" Holly yells out as she shunts Tawny to the side and makes her own way aboard the bus.

Tawny sighs and follows Holly onto the bus. Tawny is followed onto the bus by Hailey Jackson who leaps up the steps and stops in front of Pierce. Hailey is a redneck through and through, having been brought up on hunting and monster trucks. Her and her mother are also good friends with Pierce as he is also her regular school bus driver and a family friend, so she stops to say hello to him as she boards the bus.

"Howdy Pierce." Hailey says as she reaches Pierce, tipping her trucker cap as she does so.

"Oh hey Hailey...I forgot you were in this class..." Pierce says as finds it hard to look Hailey in the eyes.

"Are you okay man?" Hailey asks.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm alright Hailey. Just...stay safe." Pierce responds, still doing his best to not look at Hailey.

"Will do!" Hailey yells as she runs down the aisle.

Hailey lets out a loud burp as she does so, and grabs a seat down the back, behind Ryker Prather. Ryker is well-known as being Fallcreek High's very own drug dealer, though he himself has never used drugs and treats his dealings as a legitimate business. Other than that, he is a very cautious and laid-back individual who is protective of those he cares about. At the moment he is chilling out on the bus by listening to some 90's Alternative music on his iPod. Pierce takes a deep breath and looks up at his rear view mirror and spots Hailey sitting by herself. Pierce is racked with guilt over what he must do, and has been thinking of some kind of escape plan for the kids ever since he was informed of his task. But alas, they have Pierce's family, and he just can't find it within himself to allow his own children and grandchildren to die by his actions. Either way, Pierce won't be able to live with himself after day's end.

Pierce is startled out of his own thoughts by a metallic clanging that he hears from the bus' entrance, and he turns to see Alice Eleanore Jackson (no relation to Hailey) being helped onto the bus by her Hispanic best friend Axelle Marie Hodder. If the metal cane and sunglasses weren't a dead giveaway, Alice is in fact blind in both eyes, and has been since she was 13 years old. Axelle on the other hand has perfect vision and always helps Alice get around when she needs it. Both girls can be rather cold to strangers and only mainly hang out with each other during school hours, though they do both have a few 'loose' friends around the school. Pierce contemplates whether or not he should help Alice up the steps, but she manages to achieve this herself with Axelle's help, and both girls walk past Pierce without saying hello and take seats together in the middle of the bus. They are followed by more students who begin to fill up the bus. The last ones to enter are the siblings Arkin and Jill Walker, who are followed by their friend Lawrence Desean Greggory. Arkin and Jill are arguing as siblings usually do, while Lawrence, a sweet African-American teen on the football team, follows behind laughing as he is amused by the sibling's feud.

"Jill! I said I'm going to look after it." Arkin, the over-protective older brother yells as he fends off Jill as she tries to grab some of the money that he holds in his hand.

"Arkin! Dad said both of us! Give me some!" Jill, the adventurous baby sister pleads as she tries to get some of the spending money that their father gave Arkin.

"I swear if you guys are like this the entire trip, just kill me now." Lawrence says as he follows his friends to the last free seats on the bus.

Due to being last, they are all forced to sit separately. Lawrence sits next to his friend Trevor, while Arkin is forced to sit next to Samara Wallace. Samara is referred to as that 'weird quiet girl who always sits by herself at the back of every classroom'. That's if people even notice her at all that is. Arkin himself regrettably forgot about her existence until he sat next to her. Jill sits next to Tyler Alexander Pierson, who has his face buried in a book. He takes the time to say hello to Jill when she sits down however, before returning to his book. Tyler is a very serene boy, preferring to relax with some peace and quiet when the opportunity presents itself. Though he will be social when forced to. Satisfied that all of her students have boarded, Elizabeth rise up out of her seat, gazes outside the bus door to be sure, and then stands in front of her students. Just to be entirely sure, she begins to count them._ 40...41...42. Perfect._ Elizabeth smiles.

"Alright everyone. Let's get this show on the road!" Elizabeth yells out with fake enthusiasm.

Students clap and cheer in unison as Elizabeth sits back down in her seat. She firmly places a hand on Pierce's back, shocking him into action. Pierce closes the bus door and starts the ignition. In perfect timing, Class A's bus also starts it's engine and pulls out of the front entrance, followed by Class B. Pierce does his best to keep his emotions in check as he steers out onto the main road. He looks to his right, where he has taped a photo of his six grandchildren, all huddled together for Christmas. He stares at the photo for a while before concentrating on his job once more.

"I'm sorry kids..."


	4. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

**Hour 0**

**11pm**

**42 Students Remain**

_Pain._

Pain was all Bryce Taylor could feel as he slowly opened his eyes, his eyelids feeling like they were being pulled down by weights. His eyes are greeted with darkness, not too dissimilar from the same darkness that greeted him from before his awakening. Bryce grimaces as his eyes attempt to adjust to the darkness that surrounds him while he slowly shifts his body on the cold hard concrete floor that he currently finds himself lying upon. His back is sore from lying on the hard surface for so long, so he lets out a painful moan as he leans up on his right side. His mind ponders back to how he wound up in this situation, but he can't seem to recall exactly how he got here. The last thing he can remember is boarding the bus and sitting next to Esther. _The bus! Esther!_ How did he get here from the bus? Is this a part of the trip? Where is Esther? All these questions and more race through Bryce's mind as he does his best to take note of his surroundings.

To Bryce's surprise, he appears to be located within a classroom. _That can't be right can it? We were supposed to be leaving the school, and this isn't even our school anyway is it? I don't recognize this room at all..._ As far as classroom's go, it is a pretty basic model. What appears to be a freshly cleaned blackboard takes up the majority of the wall that faces Bryce, who finds himself lying towards the back of the room. To the left of the blackboard is an averaged sized Television, which sits atop of a stand. A dual VCR/DVD machine sits below it on a rack located halfway down the stand. In front of the blackboard and Television sits a desk that would most likely belong to this abandoned classroom's teacher, as it bares somewhat of a resemblance to the ones found at Fallcreek High. The desk, and the entire classroom for that matter, looks as though it was forgotten about long ago, as rust coats several of the walls and objects that occupy the room, while Bryce also notices that the floor he is sitting on appears to be quite grimy.

Bryce looks at the almost slippery floor in the darkness, attempting to see just how uncared for it is, before seeing something that catches him completely off-guard. Lying all around Bryce on the floor are the unconscious bodies of his fellow classmates. Fear grips Bryce as he is at a loss for words as to why they are in that state, or why they are even in that situation at all. His eyes scan the floor in front of him, and much to his horror, almost the entire room is filled with bodies, all in the same unconscious state as the last. Bryce begins to question why he is the only one awake. _This is a nightmare right? It has to be a nightmare! I've just fallen asleep on the bus...that's it! Any moment now we'll pull into the city and Esther will wake me up and...Wait! Esther! Where is she?_ Bryce does his best to try and identify her body in the darkness, adjusting his glasses as he does so. Georgie Hall. Zero Dugas. Brandon Dawn. Bryce recognizes several of his classmates but can't seem to find Esther.

Bryce grunts and gets up on all fours, frantically trying to find his best friend. Deciding she doesn't lie in front of him, Bryce spins around to see if she is lying behind him. Instead, he finds a familiar face watching him, staring at him in a way that entirely catches Bryce off-guard. Samara Wallace sits at the back of the classroom, a few feet away from Bryce. She sits with her back firmly against the back wall, her eyes never leaving Bryce. Even in a messed up situation like the one they currently find themselves in, Samara can still be found sitting by herself at the back of the room. Bryce stares back at Samara, who still does nothing but stare back at him. Bryce begins to feel very uneasy about the situation, so he decides to do something that he has never done before in his life. Talk to Samara Wallace. Bryce clears his throat and begins to speak.

"Samara...do you have any idea what's going on?" Bryce asks nervously.

Samara says nothing. Instead, she still stares at Bryce and raises one of her fingers to her lips and shushes him, showing that she is enjoying the silence. Bryce wasn't expecting this, and Samara's behavior obviously has him agitated. He gets up on his knees and talks to her more sternly.

"Well have you at least seen Esther?!" Bryce asks Samara in a more demanding tone.

For a while, Samara just stares back at Bryce again. Eventually though, she sighs and points downwards somewhere off to her right. Bryce follows where she is pointing and sees a female classmate lying asleep on the ground a couple of feet away from them. Bryce knows immediately from the girl's clothing that it is Esther and he quickly leaps over to her side, accidentally standing on a classmate's hand as he does so.

"OWW!" Charlie Klim screams as he shoots awake, nursing his crushed hand in pain.

Charlie's loud screams essentially wake up the rest of the class, who all wake up in the some way Bryce did, groggy and confused. After Charlie gets over the sudden jolt of pain transmitting from his still hurting hand, he begins to take notice of his surroundings. Fear sets in as he realizes that he is in an unfamiliar situation while the students around him also do their best to understand their current predicament. Charlie sits up, being careful to not get stepped on again as more and more students get to their feet, and notices that Samara is staring at him, in the exact same way that she was previously staring at Bryce. The two stare at each other in silence, before they both look over at Bryce, who is leaning over the still sleeping Esther. Esther is lying face down on the cold hard ground, so Bryce carefully rolls her over onto her back and checks to make sure that she hasn't been harmed. Concluding that she is fine aside from being in a state of unconsciousness, Bryce attempts to wake the sleeping beauty.

"Esther! Esther!" Bryce whispers as he gently shakes the sleeping girl by her shoulders.

The only response Bryce gets from Esther is a grumble as she attempts to roll back over onto her side, still asleep. Bryce shakes her again, but still gets the same response.

"Esther! Esther! Please wake up!" Bryce yells as he shakes Esther harder this time, catching the attention of those around them.

Charlie watches from over near Samara, internally debating whether or not he should try and help the other boy or if he should instead join the crowd in trying to figure out what is going on. Samara still sits against the wall, doing nothing except watching the others act with a mix of panic and confusion. Georgie Hall and Zero Dugas wake up next to each other a couple of feet away from Charlie and Samara and look over at the yelling Bryce with confusion as they try to rub their eyes awake. Brandon Dawn wakes up next to Zero, and once he comes to terms with the current situation, he sits up in anger, well aware of what is in store for them. Tyler Alexander Pierson rises up behind Bryce, and walks over to the other boy, standing behind him while Bryce is unaware of his presence. He looks over him as he attempts to awaken Esther over and over again, feeling as though he should do something. He leans in to lend a hand, only to be a witness to Esther opening her eyes and coughing awake. Tyler quickly sits back down in his original position, doing his best to keep to himself, while Bryce firmly hugs the now awake Esther.

"I thought you were never going to wake up!" Bryce claims, as he tightly holds Esther against himself, ignoring the commotion around them.

"I'm fine Bryce... But what...what's going on?" Esther asks, as she is confused by both Bryce's behavior and their current surroundings.

"I...honestly don't know... But I'm glad you're okay." Bryce replies as he smiles down at Esther, who smiles back.

After getting over the awkwardness of their encounter, Esther's smile fades, and she gives Bryce a confused look. Bryce notices this, and in return gives Esther a confused look back.

"Esther? What's wrong?" Bryce asks, worried.

"What are you wearing around your neck?" Esther asks in response as she points up at him.

Bryce's hands immediately shoot to his own neck, where they grip something cold and unfamiliar. Bryce uses his fingers to feel his way around the foreign object, eventually concluding that it must be some kind of necklace that was put on him while he was asleep.

"I...I don't know what-" Bryce is about to say, before something catches his eye.

Bryce's hands move to Esther's neck, revealing that she is in fact wearing a necklace as well, identical to the one that Bryce is currently wearing. Esther notices this also, and looks back at Bryce in shock. They then look around at their classmates, who are all wearing the exact same necklaces that they are. Bryce and Esther look at each other in shock, before Bryce lets go of Esther and sits down next to her, while Esther herself sits up into a seated position. Bryce wipes his eyes and begins to explain what he so far knows of their current situation, which is very little. Georgie rises to her feet, followed by Zero, and walks over to a near-by window, side-stepping past a few students as she does so. The Class President and her loyal follower stand in front of the window and move the thick, dusty curtain that covers it out of the way, before peering out through the darkness outside. It's hard for them to make out a clear image, due to a near-by large spotlight being beamed directly into their eyes. They are however able to make out a large group of what appear to be heavily armed soldiers, who stand next to a couple of helicopters and jeeps, on what also appears to be an outside basketball court, not unlike the one at Fallcreek High where Koryn Baker could usually be found. Georgie does her best to count how many soldiers there are, while Zero turns to her in fear.

"Georgie...do you have any idea what the hell is going on?" Zero asks his friend, obviously frightened.

"I believe I know what's about to happen Zero..." Georgie replies, in a soft tone unlike her usual loud, demanding voice.

Zero shakes in fear and gives Georgie a puzzled look, before asking her another question.

"And what would that be Georgie?" Zero asks worriedly.

"Remember that rally we held last year, about the new law in Japan?" Georgie asks back, looking over at her friend.

"No...it couldn't be that...could it?" Zero pleads, shaking in fear.

"I think we're about to find out..." Georgie replies as she looks towards the front of the classroom, where footsteps have suddenly become noticeable.

Zero notices Georgie's changed gaze, and follows it's path before he too looks towards the source of the footsteps. Most of the students that occupy the classroom also notice the approaching source of noise and look over towards the right corner of the front of the classroom, where the sounds appear to be emitting from. None of them know what to expect. A friend? A foe? Or some kind of other twisted situation to push them deeper into the nightmare that is their current predicament? After what seems like an eternity, the footsteps finally stop, and the sound of a mechanical lock opening echoes throughout the room. Several students are caught off-guard by the loud sound, and jump back in fear, while some even cower in fear behind some of the bigger students. Finally, one of the musty walls at the front of the classroom swings to the side on a hinge, revealing that it is in fact a hidden door, leading out to a dimly lit hallway. Many of the students clench their fists, ready to take on whatever enters through the door, while others slowly make their way to the back of the room, doing their best to fade from view. None of them were expecting what happened next.

Their teacher, Elizabeth Kalarjian, strolls calmly into the room. Gone are her casual teaching clothes that she was wearing while aboard the bus with the children, with her instead wearing a more professional attire. She is wearing a buttoned up black coat that fits her perfectly, as though it was made for her, and underneath it she is wearing a plain white dress shirt, with the top of it poking out from underneath the black coat. Along with those, she is also wearing a pair of black dress pants and a pair of black stilettos, all of which fit into Elizabeth's current black dress scheme. Her hair also appears to be a bit different, with it being more well-maintained compared to the frizzled mess that Elizabeth usually comes to work with each day. The only thing that remains the same about Elizabeth's outfit is the golden locket that she wears around her neck, something that observant students have recognized that she will always wear, no matter what the occasion. Nobody has bothered to ask her why this is. Perhaps the most dramatic change to Elizabeth's outfit however, is the holster that is tied around her waist, and the military issue Beretta M9 handgun that resides within it.

The sight of Elizabeth and her sidearm strikes fear into the hearts of many of the students, who realize just what kind of a situation they find themselves in as any chance of hope in their hearts sinks. Others already know what specifically lies in store for them, and they smile at the sight of Elizabeth as her arrival signifies that the game, and it's briefing, are about to begin. A few select students are still oblivious to what is going on however, and take the arrival of Elizabeth as a sign of hope, as a sign of their rescue. One of these students is Jill Walker, who is sitting towards the front of the classroom. Jill quickly shoots up off her feet, nearly losing her red fedora hat in the process, and runs towards Elizabeth, who she considers one of her favourite teachers. Jill nearly trips over a flipped over chair as she does so, but she eventually gets within a few feet of the newly arrived teacher.

"Ms. Kalarjian! You've come back for us! This is all a big misunderstanding right? I mean, what's-" Jill yells out to Elizabeth as she runs towards her with her arms outstretched, but she is unable to finish her question.

Nobody knows whether Elizabeth did it out of defense, or out of general spite, but she responds to the frantic girl running towards her by punching Jill square in the mouth. Elizabeth's fist connects perfectly with Jill's lips and manages to split her bottom one open, spilling blood down the teenage girl's chin. Jill lets out a whimper as she is caught off-guard by the blow, and falls back onto the hard classroom floor, not too far from where she was originally sitting. The back of her head hits the ground hard, causing her hat to fly off as she tries to fight off tears. Jill's friend, Andrew James St. John made an attempt to catch Jill before she hit the floor, but was unfortunately too late. Jill winces in pain as Andrew does his best to comfort her, while Jill's brother, Arkin Walker, stands over his hurt sister, boiling with rage. He looks over at Elizabeth, and charges at her with his fists clenched. Elizabeth does nothing, and still shows next to no emotion as Arkin now makes his way towards her.

"You bitch! I'll make you pay for-" Arkin yells out, before he too is cut off, but this time not from Elizabeth.

A female soldier suddenly appears from the doorway that Elizabeth entered from, and uses the butt of her standard issue M4 Carbine Assault Rifle to hit Arkin in the face, hard. A sickening crack emits from Arkin's nose as it gushes with blood, while a dent is left in the back of the soldier's weapon. Like his sister Jill just before, the unexpected blow stops Arkin dead in his tracks. He lets out a cry of pain as he takes a few small steps backward, before falling backwards and landing directly next to his still whimpering sister. The siblings both hold their bleeding orifice's, leaving them now similar in more ways than one. Arkin feels something moving around inside of his mouth, and painfully spits it out onto the ground in front of him. The object lands on the classroom floor in a puddle of Arkin's blood, and it is revealed to be one of his teeth. Arkin stares at his lost tooth for a few moments, before clenching his fists once more, ready to charge at Elizabeth again. He is about to jump back onto his feet again, before his friend Lawrence Desean Greggory grabs the other boy from behind, and pulls him back onto the ground.

"Stay down Arkin!" Lawrence yells as he holds Arkin back, in an effort to protect his friend from any further harm.

"I suggest you listen to your friend puta." The female soldier tells Arkin, as she stands over him, aiming her M4 Carbine Assault Rifle directly at his face.

After internally debating his next course of action for a few moments, Arkin gives up and stops trying to break free of his friend's hold. He instead moves closer to his younger sister and does his best to comfort her. After letting go of his friend, Lawrence glances over at the soldier, as she lowers her weapon and makes her way to Elizabeth's side at the front of the classroom. Lawrence notices that her name tag reads 'Martinez', and that she is apparently of Hispanic descent. As she stands next to Elizabeth, it is obvious that she is much shorter and much younger than the teacher, though she seems to make up for it with a slight muscular build. The two women stand in front of the blackboard at the front of the classroom, staring over the 42 students that stand confused and afraid in front of them. Any questions they might have had were forgotten when Elizabeth swiftly struck Jill down, either from fear or from being distracted. Noticing that the chatter in the room has silenced, and that all eyes are on her, Elizabeth throws a notepad that she has been carrying down onto the desk in front of her, as the noise of it colliding with the wooden object echoes throughout the room.

Dozens of armed soldiers, outfitted with the same gear and weapons as Martinez, pile into the classroom from the hidden side passageway, as though Elizabeth gave them some kind of signal. Most of the soldiers make their way down the sides of the classroom in a line formation, barging their way through any students who might be in they way as they herd them all into the middle. Once this is done, the soldiers on the sides of the room break into formation side by side of each other against the two walls, watching over the students. A few of the soldiers have perverted or pleased smiles on their faces as they stare over the teenagers in front of them, while others look like they don't want to be there at all. A couple more soldiers enter the room, and stand along the back wall behind Elizabeth and Martinez. Lastly, two more soldiers enter the room, closing the door to the passageway behind them as they do so.

The first, an African-American man in his mid-20's, stands next to Elizabeth, on the opposite side to Martinez. He stands straight and proud, staring at the students with a face that is void of emotion, similar to Elizabeth's. His name tag reads 'Dawson'. Dawson is a very athletic and tall individual, giving the impression that he excels in his duties as an armed soldier. The second soldier enters right behind Dawson and stands next to Martinez. He is Caucasian, and appears to be in his late 20's-early 30's. His name tag reads 'McKinley'. McKinley stands slightly hunched over, and shoots a couple of winks and grins at the terrified students who cower before him. McKinley is only just taller than the short Martinez, and his almost sickly skinny frame would lead someone to believe that he has been forced to rely on cunning and manipulation more than brute force to have things his way in life. With all three of the soldiers standing next to Elizabeth specifically, one would believe that they have been assigned as her bodyguard detail for the duration of The Program. They would be right. Finally, a few of the students find their voices and step forward from the otherwise terrified crowd.

"What the hell is going on?!" Nya Marie De La Fuentes yells as she steps forward away from her friends, fear written all over her face.

"Where have you taken us?" The normally quiet Ryker Prather asks as he steps forward and stands next to Nya, attempting to learn as much as he can about the current situation.

"What have you done with our things?" Shanti Lowe asks from the corner, more concerned with her possessions as usual.

Shanti's question causes a few of her classmates to realize that they have all been stripped of all of their possessions except for the clothes on their backs and any jewelery they might be wearing. This in turn causes murmurs to emit from the crowd of teenagers, as they all begin to grow restless, demanding to know where they are and for what purpose. Eventually, words turn into action and the students begin to panic and slowly barge into the soldiers surrounding them, attempting to take control of the situation while also trying to discover just what in fact is going on. The students begin to barge into each other as well, causing a few of them to be knocked even harder into the soldiers, much to the growing frustration of the soldiers. Just as it seems a small riot might erupt in the center of the room, Elizabeth unholsters her firearm and fires a round up into the roof, startling the students. A few scream and dive to the floor, while most cease their panicking and turn their shocked gazes towards Elizabeth and her now smoking gun.

"Now that I have your attention, let's get started shall we?" Elizabeth asks as she speaks for the first time, holstering her sidearm as she does so.

The soldiers all quickly retreat back into their original positions, while the students all move back into a small group in between them. Dawson, Martinez and McKinley all back away from Elizabeth and move off to the side, allowing Elizabeth to have more room to instruct the class. The first thing she does is slowly walk up to the blackboard that resides across the wall at the front of the classroom. She picks up a fresh new piece of chalk from below it and begins scribbling along the surface for a few seconds. Some of the students attempt to peek around Elizabeth's frame to spy just what in fact she is writing, but their efforts are cut short when Elizabeth spins back around and throws the chalk onto the desk in front of her. Written on the board behind her in capital letters are the words "THE BR ACT", while below it in lower case letters are the names of four countries. Japan. North Korea. England. America. Elizabeth walks closer to the students and points at the blackboard behind her.

"First of all, who can tell me what that means, and what those four particular countries have to do with it?" Elizabeth asks as she peers over her students.

Silence. A few students appear as though they might know, but they stare at their feet instead, not willing to speak up. Elizabeth gazes over the students a second time.

"Anyone?" Elizabeth asks again.

"The BR Act, or Battle Royale, is a Government-backed law that allows a high school class of varying ages to barbarically fight to the death. It's been in place for 7 years in Japan, 5 in North Korea, 3 in England, and most recently it has been passed here...in America." Georgie answers as she steps forward from the crowd, more calm and collected than she usually is when discussing a topic such as this.

"Very good Georgie. It's nice to see we have someone who pays attention to the world around them. Yes. The BR Act does in fact stand for Battle Royale, or as some of the higher-ups like to call it, The Program. Now, aside from Georgie of course, does anybody else actually know what might take place within a Battle Royale?" Elizabeth asks as a follow-up question as she paces around the front of the classroom.

A few students raise their hands, having heard details in the past about previous foreign Battle Royale's either from friends or the internet. Georgie stands firm at the front of the group of students, her eyes never leaving Elizabeth. Zero stands behind her, unsure of what to do. Bryce and Esther huddle together a few rows behind them, while others look around confused.

"It means survival of the fittest. We finally get the chance to see who is the strongest amongst us." Ryan O'Reily boasts as he shapes up the students around him with a unnerving grin, well aware of what is about to follow.

"Wait, what? I'm confused. What is going on here? What is this BR Act?" Koryn Baker asks with tears in her eyes as she hugs her boyfriend Willis Wayne Beckridge.

Koryn looks at Georgie for an answer, but Georgie still simply stands in silence. After a few more seconds of pacing, Elizabeth sighs and returns to the front of the classroom.

"I'm sure by know that most of you are familiar are what with is occurring around our country at the moment. Riots are taking place in most of our major cities, with the death toll and damage costs rising up and up, seemingly to no end. So, President Carmack along with some of the diplomats and law makers have decided to bring in The BR Act to help combat this, after it's proven track record in Japan, North Korea, and England..." Elizabeth explains, while a hint of sadness can be heard in her voice when she mentions her homeland.

"So what? You want us to fight against these rioters for you?" Ben Wides asks, his overweight frame shaking with fear.

"No no, of course not. That would only cause the nation's losses of both life and property to skyrocket. No, The BR Act has been brought in as a deterrent if you will. A warning. A show of force to those that march in the streets, letting them know that their foolish actions will only cause even more pain than the ones they fight against!" Elizabeth barks, slowly getting fired up.

"What the hell do you expect us to do about that?" Shanti yells as she asks her second question.

"Well, think of all of this is as one big assignment..." Elizabeth replies, leaning back on the desk.

"An assignment?" Shanti asks back.

"Correct."

"To do what?"

"The goal of this assignment is murder. To kill each of your fellow classmates off, until only one remains. Do you guys think you can do that for me?" Elizabeth announces, pointing at her students.

Cries of fear and resistance emit from the crowd once again as they start to shuffle around the room, looking for a way out of the situation. The soldiers surrounding them quickly leap into action and herd the students back into the center, doing their best to keep them all under control. Amidst all of the commotion, Elizabeth still stands calmly at the front of the classroom, waiting for her students to settle down while she internally fights her cravings for another cigarette. After calming down, the students all look amongst themselves for someone to respond back to Elizabeth, to defend them. They all look at Georgie, their normally fired-up Class President, but she is still standing in silence, running thoughts over in her mind. Finally, a voice from the crowd rises, though from an unexpected source. Carly Stillwell, the normally quiet and serious Asian girl steps forward from the crowd and stares back at Elizabeth, who smirks slightly.

"Why us? We have nothing to do with what's going on out there. Why not just abduct the ones behind the riots and kill them instead?" Carly asks her teacher without a show of emotion.

"Because Carly, when faced with a threat of violence people like that tend to fight even harder, determined to prove their point even more. But, if you take away what they cherish most, their children, their future, they will lose the will to fight. Why fight for the future you want for your children if they won't be alive to enjoy it in the first place? Besides, if they surrender sooner, rather than later, they can minimize the damage done. But that all rests in their hands." Elizabeth replies.

"I understand." Carly replies genuinely as she walks back into the crowd and stands back in her original place.

Many of Carly's classmates are shocked by her response. How can she be so calm about this? How can she accept death so easily, without so much as an argument? A few of them ponder whether or not they should ask Carly herself this, but they all lose this thought as another student steps forward, this time the equally quiet Jack Campbell, who broods towards the front.

"Why were we chosen?" Jack asks, showing about the same emotion as Carly.

"National Lottery. First the state was randomly selected, with the town and high school being randomly selected afterwards. It all came down to pure luck." Elizabeth answers.

Like Carly, Jack wanders back into the crowd without so much as an argument.

"Any other questions for now?" Elizabeth asks, waiting for a response from the crowd.

There isn't one. Everyone simply stands silent, either from fear or concentration, waiting for Elizabeth to continue. She notices this and heads towards the Television that sits on a stand in the corner, pulling a DVD case out of her coat as she makes her way towards it.

"Alright. We aren't going to be sending you out without any information, so my superiors have been kind enough to supply us with this promotional DVD that will-" Elizabeth begins to explain, before she is cut off.

"I won't do it." A voice claims from the crowd behind Elizabeth.

Caught off-guard, but not completely shocked, Elizabeth spins around to see that all eyes are on Georgie, giving her away as the voice in question. Georgie stands to the right of most of the group, fists clenched, sweat dripping. She is doing her best to keep calm and not show any emotion to those that would control her.

"You won't do what, Ms. Hall?" Elizabeth asks, intrigued.

"I won't be a part of your game. You may be able to control everybody else, but not me. I'm prepared to stand up for what I believe in, no matter the cost..." Georgie answers, trying to keep strong.

"Tell me Georgie. What do you believe in?" Elizabeth asks as she stands a mere few feet away from her student.

"Human rights. Freedom. The right to make our own choices, and not to be forced around by people like you." Georgie claims, attempting to tap into her debating skills.

"People like me? Trust me, Georgie. You have no idea what kind of person I am. What I've done. What I've lost. I've lost those things because of people like you Georgie. People who believe that they can change the world. Make it a better place. What those people don't realize is that by doing what they are doing they are just contributing to the problem. It all adds up. How does that saying go? When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people there is liberty. Surely you've seen the world outside Georgie? I know you're a smart girl. Does that look like liberty to you?" Elizabeth states as she comes face to face with Georgie.

Georgie stares back into Elizabeth's eyes, never faltering, but remains silent. Elizabeth smiles, and begins to pace around Georgie, while other students do their best to stay away from the duo.

"So, enlighten me. How far are you prepared to go to fight for what you believe in?" Elizabeth asks, obviously interested.

"As far as it takes." Georgie replies strongly, finding her voice again.

Elizabeth leaps forward from her pacing and grabs Georgie by her shoulders, looking the younger girl in the eyes once again.

"And how far is that?" Elizabeth asks quietly.

"I think you know Ms. Kalarjian..." Georgie answers, faintly keeping her composure.

Elizabeth and Georgie both remain silent as they stare at each other for a few moments, while the rest of the class watch them from a distance. After what seems like an eternity, Elizabeth smiles and pats Georgie on the shoulder.

"I understand Ms. Hall. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten." Elizabeth claims as she walks back towards her desk.

As Elizabeth leaves the area, a few students approach Georgie, including Zero, who clearly looks confused.

"What was all of that about Georgie?" Zero asks, but to no response.

Georgie ignores Zero question, not out spite or annoyance, but out of concentration and still stares at Elizabeth, who turns around to look at her again once she has reached her desk, her right hand resting inside of her coat pocket.

"You do understand that all students must participate or there will be consequences don't you Ms. Hall? Dire consequences." Elizabeth asks casually.

"I think you already know that I know that, Ms. Kalarjian." Georgie answers as her eyes start to slowly water.

Elizabeth nods. She then removes her hand from within her coat, revealing that she is now holding a small remote in her right hand. Many of the students believe Elizabeth's remote to be for the Television, but this theory is cut down once they realize that it is about half the size of a regular Television remote, and strangely foreign.

Elizabeth grips the remote in her hand tightly, staring at it intensely as an abundance of thoughts pass through her head. Georgie still hasn't moved after her encounter with Elizabeth, and she still stares at her teacher, doing her best to not look nervous. After much deliberation, Elizabeth sighs and raises the remote, pointing it at Georgie. She stands like that for a few seconds, before finally pressing the button. Georgie's heart stops as this happens, and she closes her eyes in anticipation.

**BEEP!**

**BEEP!**

The loud beeping noise emits from the collar around Georgie's neck, catching the attention of all of the students that surround her. Most are confused as to what the beeping means, while a few back away from their Class President, aware of what is about to unfold. Georgie still stands with her eyes closed, as she mentally comes to terms with her fate and makes peace with herself in her mind. Elizabeth puts the remote back into her coat pocket and leans back off of the desk again, and approaches Georgie and the rest of the students.

"I guess this is a better time than any to explain what in fact those collars around your neck are. As I'm sure Georgie here already knows, they are permanent, so don't go trying to rip them off or you will gravely regret it. They are also water and shock proof, so don't get any funny ideas. The collars allow us to monitor your heart rate and your location, so if you attempt to cause any trouble, or you refuse to follow orders, like Ms. Hall over here, it will allow us to transmit radio waves to your collar. These radio waves will then set into motion a detonation sequence, connected to the explosives located within the interior of the collars. You are all about to witness the effects of this." Elizabeth explains calmly as she points at Georgie, who's eyes are still closed.

As if he she were acting on cue, Georgie opens her eyes as soon as Elizabeth finishes talking. She breathes in heavily, and spins around to face her fellow students, doing her best to ignore the beeping as it accelerates and gets further and further to it's finale. Most of the students have backed as far as they can away from Georgie out of fear of her collar, with the exceptions of Zero, Bryce, Esther, Raven Lynn White and Xavier Iderik, who all stand at varying distances from Georgie.

"I don't blame any of you for taking part in their game, but please, don't become their puppets. Live and die free. Don't be afraid to stand up for what you believe in, no matter the cost. Evil will prosper when the good do nothing. It may not seem like it after the way I've acted all these years, but I love each and everyone of you, and I'm sure I will be seeing you most of you again soon. Goodbye my friends. Thank you all for the time we've spent together." Georgie finishes her speech by turning to Zero and smiling at him as tears now flow freely from her eyes.

Georgie waves goodbye to the group of students and turns back around, her eyes closed again. She thinks back to a time spent with her mother, a fond memory of Georgie's that always brings a smile to her face. Even in this situation, it still brings a smile to her tear-filled face. Her mother's face appears in her mind and leans over her daughter lovingly as Georgie is suddenly eight years old again. Georgie's mother leans forward and whispers into her ear. _You can't expect people to make sacrifices for what you believe in if you aren't prepared to make those sacrifices yourself._ Her mother's words bounce around her head as the beeping clearly nears the end of it's crescendo. Georgie wipes the tears from her eyes and steps forward, an idea forming in her head.

"I am no bird, and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will." Georgie says aloud as she suddenly breaks out into run towards Elizabeth, much to everybody else's surprise.

Georgie runs as fast as she can towards Elizabeth, still smiling as she does so. Her heart rate and the beeping's crescendo align perfectly. Georgie, having accepted her own fate, has decided to try and take out Elizabeth with her collar explosion as well, in an attempt to somehow save her fellow students from her fate, or at least to take her murderer down with her. While caught off-guard, Elizabeth doesn't appear to be shocked, and stands in place as her student runs towards her, not attempting to reach her holstered weapon. Georgie's eyes light up as she gets to within a few feet of her teacher and she leaps through the air towards with her arms outstretched, hoping to close the distance even further.

**RAT-A-TAT! RAT-A-TAT! RAT-A-TAT!**

The sound of three Assault Rifle's firing in unison floods the room as bullets pierce through nearly every part of Georgie's body. Elizabeth quickly turns around in shock to her three bodyguards, Dawson, Martinez, and McKinley, firing into the flying girl. Her left hand is shot to pieces as fingers are blown off violently and large chunks of flesh rip off onto the floor below her. Two bullets cleanly go through Georgie's right hand in her palm and her wrist, causing blood to flow freely all over the place, before being severed completely from her wrist by more gunfire. Georgie's legs are blown apart as one hangs by the tiniest piece of sinew while the other is missing large chunks of flesh as bone is clearly shown while her knee bone is shattered by half a clip of ammo. The bulk of the bullets hit Georgie in her chest , obliterating it as her organs are blown apart inside of her while her intestines droop out of the bullet wounds and flap around as Georgie is flung backwards by the force of the gunfire.

A few of the bullets hit Georgie directly in her face and neck, tearing her face apart. Both of her eyes explode as bullets pierce through them, while her nose is smashed to pieces as well. Her mouth is turned into a large gaping hole of red as the majority of her teeth have either been blown out or embedded into her face. One ear is blown off entirely, while the other has strangely been left unharmed. Her neck loosely stays in place while half of it has been shredded by gunfire. One of the last bullets fired manages to hit the collar directly and sets the detonator off. Georgie's head is violently blown off of her shoulders and spins backwards into the room, spraying even more blood and gore over the screaming students. Dawson and Martinez cease firing, while McKinley keeps firing due to fear even after the girl has left the air and his bullets shoot past her and fire into the bloodied, crying students, who hit the blood-stained floor screaming.

Luckily, the bullets all manage to miss the students by mere inches, except for one, that hits Bryce directly in the shoulder. Bryce clutches his bleeding shoulder and falls to the ground in pain, while Esther does her best to comfort him. The bloodied, obliterated mess of blood, gore, destroyed organs and shredded flesh that used to be Georgina Hall, a 16 year old girl originally from New York who wanted to get into politics one day and make her parents proud, hits the ground with a disturbing squelching sound. The barely recognizable husk of Georgie's head rolls across the floor and leaves a trail of blood and brain matter before it stops at the feet of Zero. Zero bursts into tears as he stares down at the destroyed head of the girl he's been in love with for the past three years.

**GIRL 13 GEORGINA HALL - DEAD**

**41 STUDENTS REMAIN**

Many of the students remain on the floor for an extended period of time from fear of being hit by the stray bullets. Eventually, they all rise to their feet, free of harm, with the exception of Bryce, who remains on the ground writhing in pain. Esther is seated next to him, doing her best to apply pressure to the wound. Nobody comes to their aide. Both student and soldier alike are too distracted by Georgie's corpse to do anything but stare at it in horror. The room is remarkably silent for the time being. One of the younger looking soldiers lets loose the day's meals as he vomits all over the floor around himself, giving away the fact that he is a rookie. Nya loses both her composure and her footing due to nausea and falls sideways. Before she can collide with the hard ground she lands in the arms of Vison Matthews, much to the surprise of them both. Raven, having been located closer to Georgie than most of the other students, looks down at her hands and clothes, only to find that they are stained with the dead girl's blood. Raven raises her hands closer to her face as blood drips off of them, and stares at them for a while. For the first time in a long time, Raven smiles. Xavier walks past his fellow goth and stands a few feet away from the Class President's corpse and kneels next to it. The odd boy observes the dead body closely, and is clearly fascinated by it. Brandon kneels down next to the crying Esther and does his best to give her assistance in helping the wounded Bryce. Brandon places his hands over Esther's and presses both pairs down harder on the wound, causing Bryce to call out in pain. This catches the attention of Elizabeth, who now becomes aware of the wounded boy. She makes her way towards him, with Dawson closely following.

"Make sure you keep pressure on the wound. It looks like the bullet exited cleanly but we can't take any chances." Brandon tells Esther, doing his best to comfort her and her bloodied friend.

Esther nods in response to Brandon as she weeps for her friend. She moves one of her bloody hands out from under Brandon's and uses it to take one of Bryce's hands in her own, squeezing it tightly. Just for that moment, all of the pain from Bryce's gunshot wound disappears as he smiles up at Esther from the floor, who smiles back at him through her tears. Esther and Brandon are caught off-guard when Elizabeth and Dawson appear next to them suddenly. They both look over Esther and Brandon, before looking down at Bryce, who is still smiling at Esther and unaware of their presence.

"Well, what do we have here? An accident I'm guessing. Caused by someone who must be unaware of how to properly handle their firearm it seems." Elizabeth says quietly, as she shoots a glare at McKinley, who stares down at his feet sheepishly.

"Ms. Kalarjian! Please! We have to get Bryce help! Please help him! He has to go to a hospital!" Esther pleads to her teacher as she cries at her feet.

"I'm afraid that's out of the question Ms. Rodriguez. Once all participating students are in the game, they must remain in the game until a winner is declared. It's the rules." Elizabeth claims matter-of-factly to the frantic teenager.

"What?! You're just going to send him out there like this?! He'll die! We have to get him help! Now!" Esther cries, coming close to begging.

"I apologize. As I said, rules." Elizabeth declares again, seemingly careless.

Suddenly a thought appears in Brandon's mind, who has been silent ever since Elizabeth and Dawson wandered over.

"Wait! You have to follow the rules right?! Well I remember hearing about them online, and one of them strictly stated that all participants must be sent into The Program in perfect health, to allow fairness. The Program itself cannot go ahead if an unfair balance has been created by those in charge. The only exceptions are participants with unavoidable disabilities..." Brandon says this last part as he looks over at the blind Alice Eleanore Jackson, who has been standing near the corner of the room ever since she woke up.

Hearing Brandon's claims about the game not being able to go ahead, nearly all of the students crowd around Bryce, Esther, Elizabeth, Dawson and himself as he attempts to get them out of the situation. Whisperings and murmurs of "Is that true?", "What did he just say?" and "Does that mean we can go home?" fill the air as Elizabeth clearly looks frustrated.

"You said it yourself. You have to follow the rules..." Brandon says to Elizabeth.

Esther lets out a relieved sigh as she glances down at Bryce, a warm smile covering her face. A frustrated Elizabeth turns away from the three teenagers and turns towards Dawson, who is looking back at Elizabeth uneasily.

"He is right ma'am. The game can't go ahead if one of students is carrying an injury that could hamper the result. The higher-ups claim it would create a bad image for The Program, believe it or not." Dawson explains to Elizabeth as she looks back at him.

Elizabeth sighs and covers her face with her right hand.

"Fine..." Elizabeth moans as she accepts defeat.

A warmth floods Bryce as he hears the news, almost forgetting entirely about the massive pain emitting from his shoulder. He clenches Esther's hand in his own even tighter, and stares her directly in the eyes. Some of Bryce's own blood has sprayed onto Esther's face due to the gunshot wound, but the blood on her face only serves to make her beautiful hazel eyes to stand out even more in contrast to the red surrounding them. Esther stares back at Bryce, and their eyes meet. As Esther's hazel eyes stare back at him, Bryce loses himself in them. Everything around Bryce may as well reside in an alternate universe as nothing else exists in that moment to Bryce except for himself and Esther. Everything that Bryce and Esther are. Everything that Bryce and Esther have been. Everything that Bryce and Esther will be. Bryce feels his heart beat frantically in his chest. _This is it! This is the moment! The moment to let her know exactly how you feel! She just saved your life! You owe it to her to be honest._ Bryce takes a deep breath to calm his heart rate down and begins to speak.

"Esther...there is something that I have needed to tell you for a very long time. Esther Rodriguez, I have been in lov-"

**BANG!**

The bullet fired from Elizabeth's military issue handgun slams directly into the right side of Bryce's head, just below the temple. The side of his head bursts open violently, while half of his ear is blown off completely. The force of the gunshot causes his right eyeball to pop slightly out of it's socket, becoming enlarged as the pressure of the blow squeezes it and knocks the glasses right off of his face. The bullet travels quickly through Bryce's brain matter, taking the boy's life almost instantly. The bullet erupts from the other side of his head and showers those close to him in even more blood and gore. Bryce's body slumps awkwardly to the side, and lays with half of his face being submerged in a pool of his own blood. The last remaining flicker of life leaves Bryce's dead eyes, taking everything that Bryce Taylor is, everything that Bryce Taylor was, and everything that Bryce Taylor would be, with it.

**BOY 20 BRYCE TAYLOR - DEAD**

**40 STUDENTS REMAIN**

Esther sits, covered in the warm, salty blood of her deceased friend. She opens her mouth to make a noise, but remains silent, gripped with shock. Her hands twitch uncontrollably, while her body as a whole begins to shake beyond her control. All she can do is let her body go as she stares at Bryce's festering corpse, remembering all the times they had spent together, while also imagining all the times they were meant to spend together in the future. The other 39 students stand around her at varying distances. Most shoot her sympathetic glances. Some really don't care at all, while others smile and make a mental note of there being only 39 other contestants remaining with them in The Program.

"There. We play the game with 40 students instead." Elizabeth declares calmly.

Elizabeth's words cause Esther to regain control of her own body, and she turns to her left to see that Elizabeth is still standing next to her, holding her smoking gun. Esther and her teacher's eyes pass each over, and after a few seconds Esther attempts to lunge at the older woman. Reacting quickly, Brandon grabs Esther from behind and uses his skills as a trained fighter to pin her to the ground.

"No! Let me go! I can do this! I can get her!" Esther screams as she attempts to break out of Brandon's grapple.

"Not like this Esther. We don't need anybody else dieing right now." Brandon tells Esther as he does his best to contain her for her own safety.

One of the students surrounding Brandon and Esther, Axelle Marie Hodder, runs over to the struggling pair and slides down next to Esther. Axelle does her best to not make contact with Bryce's corpse or the growing blood pool surrounding it. She brushes a patch of loose hair out of Esther's face, and lowers her face so that it is now in front of Esther's.

"He's right Esther. I'm sorry, but there are bigger things to worry about at the moment. Bryce wouldn't want you to die for him. Revenge can wait." Axelle explains to Esther.

Esther's struggling gradually ceases as she stares at the floor, and sobs silently. Axelle looks up at Brandon, and they both nod at each other. Brandon lets go of Esther, and sits next to her, feeling bad. Axelle remains where she is next to Esther and slowly rubs the other girl's back as a sign of comfort. Elizabeth, satisfied with the situation, holsters her weapon and makes her way back to the front of the classroom. Dawson follows her and stands back next to Martinez and McKinley. A hint of sadness is clearly seen on Dawson's face. Elizabeth walks back over to the Television, as she was doing before Georgie interrupted her, and picks the DVD case up off of the top of the Television. After a few button presses, both the Television and the the DVD player are turned on, and Elizabeth inserts the disc into the machine. After a small government message appears, a black background fills the screen and the word "PLAY" is present in the center of it, surrounded by a selection box. Satisfied, Elizabeth turns back around to face the class. Most of the students have either done their best to swiftly get over the deaths of their two classmates, or have at least been gripped with shock, and are all now giving Elizabeth their undivided attention.

"Now, as I was saying before I was interrupted..." Elizabeth looks over at the bodies of Georgie and Bryce. "...this DVD contains an instructional video that will inform you of everything that you need to know while in The Program. You might also notice some familiar faces, who have kindly 'volunteered' to help us pass on this information to you. I suggest you all pay attention." Elizabeth explains, before she presses the play button on the DVD player and begins the video.

After a few routine beeps and the sound of static, the words "THE BR ACT INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PROGRAM" appear on screen in big capital letters. The screen then cuts to an image of a room. The room doesn't look particularly well kept, and instead appears to be located in some kind of basement. Dust and other grime coats the floor and walls, and unnerving red stains can be seen in certain areas of the room.

The shot lingers for a moment, before the disc cuts to a different scene. It's still in the same room, in the exact same location in fact, except now a man is standing in front of the camera. The man does not appear to be in good shape. He has been stripped down to his underwear, and several cuts and bruises are noticeable all over his body. Trying to control his shaking body, the man looks up at the camera with fear. Most of the students are taken aback at the sight of the wounded man, somewhat feeling pity for him, but none of them are able to recognize him. All except for Ryker Prather, who steps forward from the group.

"Da...Dad?" Ryker asks the Television, as he is unable to take his eyes off the screen. Ryker looks over at Elizabeth, his face conveying both rage and confusion.

"Relax Ryker. Your father is safe. He just needed some, 'incentive', to become cooperative. You have my word that he is still alive. Same goes for the rest of you." Elizabeth claims as she looks back at Ryker and the rest of the class.

The students all begin to look amongst themselves worriedly, while Ryker's eyes are still glued to the screen. His father stares into the camera, as if he was staring directly back at his son.

"Do I really have to do this?" Ryker's father asks he pleads with the camera.

Before a response is heard, the scene quickly jumps forward again. The shot remains the same, except now Ryker's father's right eye is now swollen and bleeding heavily, indicating that a beating had taken place in between shots. Ryker's father looks back up at the camera again, and sighs before he begins to speak.

"Hello to everyone in Fallcreek High School Class B..." Ryker's father says, before he stares down at his feet in shame.

The scene cuts again, with Ryker's father having been replaced with a woman. The woman has been stripped down to her bra and underwear, and doesn't appear to be as distressed as Ryker's father. Back in the classroom, Hailey Jackson's eyes go wide as she realizes that her mother is onscreen.

"...and congratulations on being chosen to compete in the United States first ever Battle Royale. You can do this Hailey! Stay stron-" Hailey's mother yells, before she too is cut off.

* * *

Axelle's mother appears on screen, doing her best to form a fake smile. Several of her teeth are missing, while blood flows out through her cut lips. Axelle clenches her fists in anger at the sight of this.

"On behalf of President Severin Carmack and the rest of us, we would like to thank you all for the sacrifices that you are all about to make on our behalf." Axelle's mother musters through her fake, bleeding smile as tears begin to fall from her eyes.

* * *

Carrie Parker's father now stands in a pair of boxer shorts, clutching his bleeding arm. We see a bone in his arm has been broken out of place, and has torn through the skin surrounding it. Carrie screams, and attempts to run towards the Television, but she is held back by her best friends Gavril Voronov and Lourdes Touvier. They try to console her as she cries deeply into their arms.

"Now...we're here...to explain the rules to you..." Carrie's father manages to get out through gritted teeth as he shakes with immense pain.

* * *

A young girl, around the age of 16, appears on the screen this time. She is a stark contrast to the parents that have been shown before her, but her nearly naked and abused body shows that she has been treated just the same regardless. A few students recognize her from their school, but are confused as to why she is present in the video. While some of them voice their confused questions to each other, Jack sits quietly by himself, aware that this one is meant for him. The girl is named Emily. A friend of Jack and Anna's, his deceased girlfriend. Jack forces himself to watch as Emily moves around on all fours, before she manages to get up onto her knees. Her nose appears to be broken. Hair is missing from her head, having apparently been ripped out. Two black eyes dot her bloodied face. A large open cut runs down the side of her face, the result of a knife being slashed down it. Emily does her best to not look at the camera, but a hand reaches out from behind it and grabs her by her hair. She grunts in pain as the hand forces her face into frame. Tears form in her eyes as she aches with pain and resigns to stare into the camera.

"Listen carefully everyone. For your sake...and for ours..." Emily slowly speaks, before her tears run down from her eyes and mix in with her blood-caked face.

Emily's face is aggressively pushed even further into the camera's focus, causing her bruised, blood-shot eyes to fill the screen. They are the last thing Jack sees of Emily before the scene cuts away again. His own eyes leave the screen and stare down with a look of sorrow, a look that is all too familiar when it comes to Jack.

* * *

A shirtless young man is now onscreen. While he is a teenager, he appears to be several years older than Emily. Several large cuts run down his chest, and the young man winces in pain with each breath he takes. Trevor Forrest Weiland runs to the front of the classroom, and calls out in fear for his boyfriend Damien as he stands in front of the Television.

"Damien! What did they do to you?!" Trevor yells at the screen, as though he is waiting for his lover to respond.

Elizabeth walks in between Trevor and the Television and pauses the DVD.

"Mr. Weiland, please go back to your spot so that everyone can hear the video."

Trevor stares at the paused image, which is of Damien staring at the camera, as if he is staring back at Trevor. He reaches his hand out and attempts to touch the Television, but his hand is slapped away by Elizabeth.

"Mr. Weiland!" Elizabeth yells.

"You'll pay. You'll pay for what you did to my Damien. I swear it. I'll find a way to make you regret this..." Trevor threatens as he wipes his eyes.

"Mr. Weiland...Trevor...I don't mean to insult you, but your threats don't have much of an impact when you are standing in the blood of a classmates' whose death I was just responsible for. Now, please return to the others so we can continue."

Although hesitant, Trevor returns to the group of the students and sits by himself towards the back, facing away from the Television, not wanting to see anymore. Elizabeth, satisfied, hits play on the DVD player and returns to her desk.

"Currently, you are all located on this island..." Damien points to the upper right corner of the Television screen, revealing that one of his fingers has been removed.

After a few seconds, a digitally added image appears in that corner of the screen. The image is a map of a small island out in the ocean, with several peaks and drops covering it's surface. Before he is cut off, Damien leaps towards the camera and stares into it.

"Trevor! I lov-"

Trevor turns around just in time to see his boyfriend for a split second before the image cuts away. Trevor stares at the Television for a moment, before turning back around again.

"I love you too Damien..." Trevor mutters as he wipes the tears from his eyes once more.

Damien's spot on the screen is now being occupied by Wayne's father, who compared to the two teens, doesn't look that bad.

"The island is roughly around 10km..."

* * *

"...but all of it's residents have been evacuated, so there is no need to worry about any interruptions..." Nya's mother explains as she drifts off and stares into space.

* * *

The map of the island from before now fills the screen, and has been divided up into small boxes. The boxes are marked by both letters and numbers, which run along the side of the map.

* * *

"As you can see, the map has been divided up into many different zones." Bryce's father explains.

As he speaks, the rest of the class can't help but stare at the dead body of Bryce before them, wondering if his family have already been informed of his death.

* * *

"Your teacher will broadcast announcements across the island every six hours." Alice's adoptive mother says, as she cradles her busted jaw.

While she is blind and unable to see her mother, Alice knows it's her simply by the sound of her voice. She grips the hand of her best friend Axelle in her own as they give each other moral support.

"Just so you know, that's 4 times a day. At 6am, 12pm, 6pm and 12am. Don't forget!" Elizabeth explains.

* * *

"These reports will contain the names of those who have died in the last six hours..." Lourdes' father says.

He is wearing a well looked after suit and doesn't appear to be hurt at all, giving the impression that he fully cooperated when asked to contribute to the video. Lourdes looks down in disappointment as several students look over to her.

* * *

Vison Matthews' father appears on screen this time. His face is heavily swollen, indicating that he has suffered a massive beating. Vison rolls his eyes at the image of his beaten father, labeling him in his mind as being weak for allowing himself to be beaten like that.

"...as well as letting you all know which zones on the map will be becoming danger zones." Vison's father says, a tooth falling out of his mouth as he does so.

* * *

"Once a danger zone has been activated, any participants who enter it will immediately have their collar detonated." Lawrence's father explains, as severe burns cover half of his face.

* * *

"Your teacher should have already informed you about the collars and the purpose they will serve." Carly's mother says, exuding the same calmness that her daughter did before.

Elizabeth nods towards the students, reminding them of when she spoke of the collars previously.

* * *

"There is a time limit to this game." Dylan Lewis' father says as he nurses a wounded shoulder.

* * *

"3 days." Koryn's mother quickly lets out as blood gushes from her nose.

* * *

Kady Noel Hagen's brother Brian appears on the screen. His left eye has literally been removed from it's socket, with only a horrifying, gaping red hole left in it's place. While worried for her brother, Kady can't help but stare at the grisly sight.

"If more than 1 student is left alive at the end of the 3 day time limit, then all of the collars will be activated and..." Brian slowly explains as he looks as if he is about to pass out.

* * *

A 5 year old boy appears on the screen, catching the attention of everybody in the room. He is Josh, the younger brother of Brooke Carter. While he doesn't appear to harmed at all, Brooke is still seen to be visibly distressed. Josh sits on the grimy floor of the room in his pajamas, and looks up at the camera absently.

"...everybody dies." Josh says, before staring back down at his hands and feet.

The shot lingers on Josh for a second, who plays around on the floor, seemingly unaware of his surroundings. Finally, it cuts to black and returns to the play menu, signaling it's end. Elizabeth walks over to the Television and removes the disc from the player, and places it back inside of it's case, before placing it on her desk up the front. As if on cue, the doorway that Elizabeth and the soldiers entered from rips open and two large iron carts are pushed into the classroom by a group of soldiers. Both carts appear to carry about twenty average sized green duffel bags each. The soldiers pushing the carts position them so that they are located in between Elizabeth and the door that they all entered from. Each of the bags has been marked with a name of one of the students written on the side of it. The bags have all been stacked evenly, except for one, which seems to have been specifically placed on top by itself. Elizabeth grabs this bag and brings it over to her desk.

"Now, you will all be leaving the room one by one. As you do so, you will be given one of these bags." Elizabeth says as she holds the bag up into the air for everyone to see.

After a few seconds, Elizabeth brings the bag down onto the desk and unzips it. She begins to pull out it's contents.

"Inside of each bag you will find 3 days worth of food and water, a map and compass, a pen and a flashlight. We also confiscated all of your bags that you brought along with you. Any items from them that were deemed to not be capable of being used as a weapon have been placed inside of the bag with your name written on it. Make sure you are given the correct bag. Each bag will also contain a weapon, which will be your main source of survival once the game begins. Each weapon is different, and were all selected at random and placed inside of your bags. Don't expect just guns either, as the people in charge have made sure to mix things up a bit, as you can see..." Elizabeth explains as she removes a crowbar from the bag.

Satisfied with her explanation, Elizabeth places the crowbar onto the desk next to the rest of the bag's contents. She picks up the notepad she had placed on the desk when she first entered the room, and walks around to the front of the desk with it in her hand.

"Now, you will all be leaving this room by class number. You have 30 seconds before the next student exits after you. The video didn't mention it, but this zone, G7, becomes a danger zone 30 minutes after the last student leaves, so I suggest you get out of here as fast as you can. When I call your name I want you to quickly come to the front next to me, grab your bag, and exit out through the door here. Any questions?" Elizabeth asks.

Nobody dares to raise their hand as they all stare back at Elizabeth.

"Good. Now, I wish you all the best of luck, and do your best to make your country proud. To 1 of you, I'll see you soon." Elizabeth says calmly.

The students all look amongst themselves. Elizabeth brings up her notepad and flips it open.

"Boy 1 Ryker Prather."


	5. Hour 1

**Hour 1**

**Day 1**

**12am**

**40 Students Remain**

Girl 7 Krystal McKenna ran. The girl had no idea where she was running to, but she knew that she just had to run. Away from the school. Away from Elizabeth and her army of soldiers. Away from the other 39 students who all wanted to hurt her. Just like they did back at school. That's how Krystal was going to stay alive in this game. By running. She knew she wouldn't stand a chance in a fair fight against some of the others in her class, especially if guns were going to play a part. No, she would run, and let the others fight amongst themselves and reduce the number of Krystal's adversaries. Nobody can kill what they can't catch. Krystal knows she isn't the fastest runner. Years of alcohol and substance abuse made sure of that. She knows she will have to take a break eventually. But as long as she plays her cards right and stays out of sight, she could have a chance at survival.

Krystal has no idea what time it is, but judging by the eternal darkness that surrounds her, she knew it would have to be very late. She has never owned a watch in her life before and didn't check to see if she was given one in her bag. She didn't even have time to glance at her map, causing her to have no idea where in fact she was heading. As soon as she exited the school building, she immediately took off running to her left and hasn't stopped since. So far she has passed a Farm Coop and a person who seemed to be that nerdy Andrew kid from her class. He was slowly making his way into some nearby bushes, seemingly unaware of Krystal's presence. Krystal makes a mental note that she should have bashed his head in when she had the chance. One less problem would be left in the game. While she didn't get a look at her weapon, she did notice that it felt like a steel rod of some kind. _Perfect for dealing blows to the head._

**SNAP!**

Krystal clumsily jumps over a fallen log, nearly tripping over an oddly placed branch as she does so. She made the shape of the log out too late, due to the surrounding darkness. She loses her footing for a moment as she tumbles down a slight hill, but soon manages to recover. She lets out an annoyed grunt as she continues running. _Careful Krystal! One misplaced step could end it all. Break your leg and it's game over._ As her thoughts race through her head, Krystal hears a twig snap behind her, off to the right somewhere. She quickly spins around in defense, ready to pounce. The only opponent that Krystal is met with is the cold night wind as it blows into her face, almost as if it were teasing her. Krystal cautiously stays in the same battle ready position for a few moments, before turning her back once more. _Somebody's out there, I know it._ As she resumes her running, she hears another sound that hardens her heart. Footsteps, as if someone is running parallel to Krystal somewhere behind her. They seemed to be making an effort to hide their location, but Krystal knew someone was following her. Whether she likes it or not, Krystal has a shadow.

Despite the presence of the mysterious follower, Krystal continues with her running as usual. There was no use in searching for shadows in the dark, and as far as Krystal is concerned she will get the opportunity to deal with them later. Krystal isn't planning on being a victim of this game. She will run for now, but when the time comes, Krystal will be ready to fight for her life. She has no friends or associates with her in the game, something that saddened her up until now. Krystal doesn't care about these people. She will be willingly to kill each and everyone of them to stay alive. Whatever it takes. Most of her peers wanted nothing to do with her. They labeled her as a slut, a tramp, a bad girl with a dim future. The truth is, Krystal really isn't a bad person. She just fell into the wrong crowd at the wrong time and wasn't strong enough to pull herself out of the hole she eventually found herself in. A hole filled with alcohol, hard drugs, anorexia, petty theft, self harming and anonymous sex with men sometimes twice her age. Those kind of things don't paint a pretty image for a teenage girl, but none of her classmates ever took the chance to get to know her. So as far as Krystal is concerned, they are all fair game. Especially whoever is following her at the present time. Despite her own internal warnings, Krystal stops dead in her tracks in a narrow pathway in between trees. She grabs the steel rod out of her bag, revealing it to be a tire iron, and throws the pack hard into the ground out of frustration. She spins around once more and raises the tire iron high above her head, ready to swing it.

"Come on motherfucker! I'm fucking sick of this! Come on! Stop being a pussy and fight me!" Krystal yells, clearly annoyed by the presence of whoever is stalking her.

Krystal's tirade is met by silence, which only serves to annoy the already angered girl even more. She lets out a loud groan and swings her tire iron around herself in frustration, apparently in a desperate attempt to somehow make contact with her follower. From a nearby bush off to the right of Krystal, Boy 1 Ryker Prather, aka Krystal's stalker, sits quietly in the darkness, unsure of what to do next. Krystal fails to see the hiding boy, and after a brief moment of more yelling, she quickly snatches up her pack and scurries off with it into more darkness. After deducing that the coast is clear, Ryker continues in his pursuit of the girl. The last shot we see is of him too disappearing into the darkness.

* * *

The girl had no idea how long she had been staring up at the boy in the tree. She still didn't even know why she was doing it. There was just something about _him_. The way his pale white skin glowed underneath the moonlight. The way his pitch black hair melded perfectly with his immaculate face. Girl 3 Raven Lynn White didn't know what it was, but there was something about Boy 8 Xavier Iderik that made her feel like she could finally connect with someone. The way he carried himself. The way he dressed. The way he acted. The way he spoke. _Wait. Has Xavier even said anything before?_ All of these things caused Raven to be drawn to the boy. Ever since their first class together, Raven knew there was something unique about Xavier Iderik, and no it wasn't the fact that he gave off the impression of dressing like a fellow Goth. Though they have never spoken, Raven has always had a softness for Xavier, and now that they are in a game where any moment could be their last, this feeling has amplified.

As soon as Georgie Hall's warm blood splashed all over her, Raven knew she would take part in the game. Raven isn't ashamed to admit that the sight of the blood on her hands excited her, and as the coppery smell made it's way up her nose, it sent her mind racing in delight. Like Krystal before her, Raven has no friends with her within The Program. In fact, she holds a particular disdain for most of her classmates. From a young age, Raven was always bullied by the other children in Fallcreek for being different. Whether it was the way she spoke, or the way she acted, Raven's classmates always found something to put her down for. This all eventually led to a lack of self-confidence in Raven as she grew up, so she began to do whatever she could to distance herself even more from the other teenagers in Fallcreek. She became angry. She became aggressive. She became cynical. She even began to coat her face with black mascara and eyeliner, to go along with her black lipstick. She used this to try and scare away anyone who ever tried to get close to her. She topped it all off  
by dying her naturally brown hair a mixture of jet black and dark red. This all led to the new Raven Lynn White being regarded by her peers as a Goth, something that the young girl relished in.

Raven stood still in her blood-stained clothes, still lost within Xavier's eyes. He continued to stare back at her, showing no sign of emotion as he sat a few branches shy from the top of a tree. _Does he feel this too? He hasn't said anything, or done anything...Does he sense a connection as well? Is there even a connection between us, or am I just..._ As Raven loses herself in her thoughts, an overgrown bush shakes about behind her. Unfortunately for Raven, she is too preoccupied to notice this. The bush begins to shake around some more, becoming increasingly louder as it does so. Xavier notices this, and uses his peripheral vision to investigate while still staring down at the girl before him. It would appear as though a person or some kind of animal is currently moving about within the shrubbery, but it is too dark for Xavier to make anything out. He breaks his gaze with Raven, which causes her to come back to reality, and turns his full attention to the noise, just in time to see...

Girl 17 Shanti Lowe leap forth from the bushes like a bat out of hell. She gracefully lands on her feet just outside of the bush, and leaps towards Raven almost instantly. Raven slowly turns towards the girl that is charging towards her, and notices that an object Shanti is holding tightly in her outstretched hand is beautifully reflecting off the moon. As Shanti gets closer, Raven realizes that the object is in fact a deadly razor blade, and that it's heading directly to slice through her neck. Raven's eyes go wide as she finally realizes the severity of the situation. Her hands quickly fumble for the bag draped over her shoulder, but she is too slow as Shanti and her razor blade are merely inches away from Raven's jugular. Raven and Shanti's eyes lock, and Raven notices the malicious glee that reflects from Shanti's eyes as she attempts to end the other girl's life. Accepting her fate, Raven closes her eyes and waits for the blade to crudely slice through her windpipe. The blade makes contact with the side of Raven's neck, and slices lightly through it, causing the contacted skin to rip open and bleed. The blade cuts through the next section of Raven's neck as it journey's towards her windpipe while she winces in pain and attempts to push Shanti away. _This can't be it! I'm not going to die at the hands of this thieving bitch!_

**THUD!**

Xavier's boot firmly makes contact with the side of Shanti's head as he leaps from his perch in the nearby girl is sent reeling from the unexpected blow, and roughly rips her razor blade out of Raven's neck as she falls on her side. Raven howls out in pain as the crude weapon is torn out of her neck and does her best to stay on her feet as her hands shoot to her neck and attempt to console her wound. Xavier elegantly lands on his feet next to Raven and Shanti, as if he were a feline. He looks at Raven, who is running her fingers over her fresh wound. As far as Raven can tell, it's just a shallow cut that didn't do any major damage. It still hurt immensely though, so Raven angrily looks down at Shanti. Shanti jumps to her feet, while Raven charges her with the intention of tackling the other girl into the ground. Shanti manages to anticipate this and steps out of the way of Raven, before swinging her backpack around and swinging it directly into the side of Raven's head. It catches Raven off-guard and sends the girl rolling into the floor.

Shanti smirks as she knocks Raven to the ground, but foolishly forgets that Xavier is standing behind her. He delivers a hard punch to the back of her head, which causes her to yell out in pain and fall to her knees. Xavier leans over the girl, and reaches his hands out towards her. He is about to try and snap her neck, when Raven gets back up and lets out a wild roar. He notices the raging girl and steps out of the way as she charges towards Shanti. Shanti grunts in pain and looks up just in time to see Raven punt her in the bottom of her jaw, knocking a few teeth loose. Shanti flies backwards through the air and lands hard on her back on a mess of twigs and stones. Raven screams in rage again, and jumps on top of her classmate. Raven punches Shanti twice directly in her eye, causing it to swell up almost immediately. Raven prepares to punch Shanti again, but before she can, Shanti seizes another razor blade from her pocket, and slices it across Raven's right cheek. As Raven is distracted by her new wound, Shanti knees her in the back, causing Raven to topple forward onto Shanti. As Raven falls towards Shanti, Shanti rises up and headbutts the girl, hurting them both. Raven rolls off Shanti, and the two girls roll around in pain on the floor next to each other.

Shanti manages to recover faster, and she gets back up on her feet next to Raven. She is debating whether or not to give Raven a swift kick to the ribs while she is on the floor, before she remembers that Xavier is still behind her. She quickly spins around and grunts with rage as she slices her razor blade through the air at Xavier, attempting to cut up his face. Xavier skillfully manages to sidestep every swipe, and slowly walks backwards from the fallen Raven as Shanti tries harder and harder to hit him. Shanti grows increasingly frustrated, and attempts to charge Xavier with the razor blade as though it were a knife. Xavier easily predicts this and steps to the side out of harm's way. He then holds his hand out flat and masterfully karate chops Shanti in the throat. Shanti is caught off-guard by the blow, and backs away from Xavier as she struggles to breathe. The boy runs up to her, and uses his superior height to send an elbow strike into the same eye Raven was punching before. This knocks Shanti to the floor, and the girl painfully rolls into the base of a near-by tree away from Raven and Xavier.

Shanti's ribs smash directly into the tree, and she heaves in pain on the floor for a while as she tries to regain her thoughts. _Goddammit Shanti! Get a hold of yourself! You can't win this fight. It was only supposed to be that Goth bitch. I didn't see that other freak in the tree._ Shanti coughs up a small amount of blood, as she gets on her knees with her back towards Raven and Xavier. _Cut your losses, and get out of here while you can. You weren't cut out for this fair fight crap. Someone else can deal with these two freaks while we stick to the shadows._ Shanti braces herself and painfully gets back up onto her feet with her bag still swung around her. She spies an open patch of bushes to her right that leads off deeper into the woods, and decides it's her escape route. _Quick Shanti! Go now-_

**THWACK!**

Shanti jumps as a rush of cold air brushes past the left side of her face, while a foreign object lands in the base of the tree in front of her. Shanti gazes closer and discovers that the object is in fact a crossbow bolt. Shanti's heart sinks when she notices that the bolt itself is stained with blood, and that hanging from the tip of the arrow as it sticks from the tree is the lower part of her left ear. Her left ear goes numb as warm blood begins to trickle down that side of her face. Shanti spins around in fear to see Raven reloading a crossbow behind her, while Xavier stands calmly next to Raven, staring with fascination at the razor blade Shanti dropped earlier. It is still covered in Raven's blood. Seeing her opportunity, Shanti fights through the massive pain and sprints off deeper into the woods. Raven leaps up with her loaded crossbow and attempts to take the fleeing girl down with another bolt, but it veers off to the left and misses Shanti completely. Raven grunts with frustration, and attempts to chase after Shanti, but Xavier holds out his arm and stops her in her tracks. Raven turns to the strange boy, and their eyes meet again. Raven drops her crossbow to her side, sensing that Xavier is of no danger to her. Blood slowly drips out of the wound on Raven's neck, while her clothes are still stained from the blood of the class president. Xavier's hands are stained with Raven's blood as he passes the razor blade between them. Taking no notice of what may pop out of the woods next, or in Raven's case, the wounds inflicted upon her, Raven and Xavier continue to stare into each others eyes with fascination.

This is the beginning of a terrifying friendship.

* * *

Boy 17 Ben Wides wanders aimlessly around the wilderness, mainly unaware of what direction he is actually heading in. He knows he isn't far from the school, but aside from that, he is totally lost. But it doesn't matter, for Ben is currently lost within his own thoughts. The walk so far has been quite rigorous for Ben, as he isn't usually used to exercise, so he is huffing and panting as he makes his way through the dark woods by himself. Sweat stains cover his clothes as his bag swings from side to side as it is follows behind him while tied around his back. As his classmates love to remind him, Ben is overweight, so he doesn't really rate himself as a good chance at the moment to win The Program, especially if it comes down to physical contact or activity. He was hoping for a gun so he could take out his classmates from a distance, but the steel bike lock he was given will have to suffice. It doesn't matter, for Ben has a plan.

Ben is a dedicated gamer, so much so that most of his nights within the Wides household are spent playing video games into the early hours of the morning. A particular favourite of Ben's is the MMO genre. Now to Ben, The Program is exactly what the government wants it to be. A game. A game that Ben eagerly wants to take part in. Ben knows that at the moment, his abilities and skills are limited, so he is merely fodder for the higher level players to take care of. But just like the MMO's Ben devotes most of his life to, the trick to winning is to slay any monsters and players that he comes across so that he can level up, and grow stronger! _The more people I kill, the better I will become! Just like my characters online! They have all just been preparing me for this, an opportunity to become the brave knight and slay the nasty monsters and save the day! Then I can get the princess..._

Perverted thoughts flood through Ben's mind as he thinks of all the pretty girls in his class. None of them would ever give him a second glance at school, but now, they must bow to him as he ventures forth to rid the island of evil! _I have to be strong and start off by leveling up! By slaying the lower level characters I can gain XP and gear! Then I will be strong enough to take on the bosses! I have to be careful though, since I don't think there are any respawns around. I don't want to be stuck with perma-death._ Ben and his fading sanity journey further into the woods, as he swings his bike lock around and smashes it into near-by trees and plants. In his mind he is destroying the environment to search for collectibles that will help him. After several minutes, Ben finally nears the end of the woods and discovers a near-by building in front of him. The building is larger than an average house, and appears to instead be a large building for storing farming equipment on the island.

Ben stares in awe at the farmhouse, deducing that it must be some kind of fortress with hidden items inside. His face is filled with glee as he walks closer towards the edge of the woods. Before he can exit the woods, he notices something that stops him dead in his tracks. Sitting on what appears to be a rock, is a person. They currently have their back towards him. Judging by the outline of the person, it is a girl. One of Ben's many classmates that are playing the game with him. _No! They're trying to get to the loot before me! It's mine! I need it! They can't have it!_ Ben ducks down to the best of his abilities and attempts to hide in the woods. As far as he can tell, the girl has failed to notice him. He carefully places his bag on his back, and begins to crawl towards his unsuspecting classmate. It takes him awhile, but Ben gradually makes his way towards her. _Be careful now. We don't want her to notice us. Stealth kills get double XP!_

Having decided that he is close enough now to attack, Ben quietly gets up on his knees and stretches the bike lock between his hands. Sweat drips from his brow as he waits for the right moment. The girl in front of him currently has her head lowered as she stares down at her feet, apparently upset over something. Ben grows impatient. Come on... The girl stares at her feet for several more moments, before she sighs and looks up at the farmhouse before her. Ben notices this, and takes the opportunity to strike. He roughly flips the chain attached to the lock over the girl's head and uses his hands to tighten it around her neck. The harsh metal of the chain crushes into the girl's windpipe as it squeezes the air out of her lungs. Ben does his best to keep the makeshift noose as tight as possible. The girl falls backwards from the pressure of the chain, but is kept up on the rock she is sitting on due to the fact that Ben presses his large body up against her own.

"You can't have it! The loot is mine bitch! Hurry up and die so I can get your XP!" Ben yells into the girl's ear, alerting her to the fact that he is clearly deranged.

As she feels the life leave her body with each attempted breathe, Girl 8 Esther Rodriguez grows more and more angry. _Not like this...Not at the hands of him! Not after everything that's happened...Not after Bryce..._ Esther's eyes flash with anger as she finds a new found rage inside her, and she uses her hands to try and pry the chain off of her sore neck. Ben notices this, and shakes the chain around a bit, causing Esther to lose her grip while also hurting her bruised windpipe even more. Feeling that she hasn't got much left in her, Esther decides on a different approach. She leans her own body against Ben's, and against her better judgment, uses his sweaty clothes and body to slide herself down his stomach. This does nothing about the chain however, just causing her to be sitting at a different angle. But that's all Esther needs. Using the last of her remaining strength, Esther musters up a powerful right kick, and smashes the tip of her foot directly into Ben's nose, causing a loud crack to emit from it.

Ben squeals with pain as he lets go of the chain and stumbles backwards, holding his bloodied nose. As soon as the pressure ceases around her throat, Esther throws the chain off of herself and gasps painfully for breathe. Running her hands over her neck for comfort, she looks up to see that Ben has managed to regain his composure and has grabbed his chain again. He attempts to swing it at Esther's face, but she is too quick for him, and uses her hands to propel herself into a back flip over the large boy. She lands a few feet behind him. Ben is amazed by this, and ponders how she was able to do it. _She must be a higher level than I thought!_ After staring at Esther for a moment, Ben regains his thoughts and swings the chain high above his head. He swings it downwards in an attempt to take Esther's legs out from under her, but she manages to see this coming. She swiftly turns around and jumps feet first into a tree, dodging the low blow. As her feet make contact with the base of the tree, she uses them to push herself off and spins around in the air. Ben stands shocked as Esther spins towards him and delivers another powerful kick, this time to the side of his head.

Ben is sent reeling as the blow connects, and he drops his chain at his feet. He takes a few steps away from Esther, and begins to cry as the pain begins to set in even more from the two kicks to his head. Esther feels no sympathy for the boy that just tried to take her life however, and quickly scoops up the chain that he left behind. Ben notices this, and looks over at Esther with fear as she perfectly spins the chain around herself, as though she has been trained in combat before. She strikes an offensive pose with the chain around herself, and lunges towards Ben. Esther spins the chain around her right arm, and using only the one arm, propels the padlock at the end of it directly into Ben's left knee. A sickening crack is heard as the steel padlock makes contact with Ben's knee, and he falls to his knees from the blow, hurting the wounded one even more. Esther then pulls the chain back towards herself and continues on with her skilled use of it. She spins it carefully around her body once more, while Ben continues to cry out in pain. Esther grips the chain, and brings it down hard on Ben's left shoulder, causing the same sickening cracking noise to be heard once again. Ben feels nauseous as he fights to stay conscious while pain wracks several parts of his body. Ben's vision starts to fade as he sees Esther still spinning the chain around in front of him. The look of pure rage that encompasses her face makes it clear that she isn't finished yet. Ben shudders at the thought of more pain, and he attempts to plead with his attacker as drool and saliva drip from his mouth.

"Pl...plea...pleas-" Ben attempts to beg for mercy, but he is cut off as a large amount of vomit bursts forth from his mouth due to the pain he is currently suffering.

Large chunks of Ben's former meals and stomach acids pool on the ground in front of him, while parts of it run down his chin and stain his shirt. Unable to talk, he outstretches his hand towards Esther. Esther is clearly disgusted by the sight in front of her, and lets out a disturbed noise to let Ben know. Growing tired of fighting Ben, Esther swings the chain downwards towards her right foot and uses it to kick the end of the chain containing the padlock. It speeds towards Ben and slams straight into his face. The crack of bones is heard a third time as Ben's nose breaks on impact, while several parts of his face are split open by the blunt force inflicted by the padlock. In what would appear to be fortunate for Ben, the blow also knocked him unconscious and he falls backwards onto the hard forest floor. Satisfied with her work, Esther retracts the chain and wraps it around her right arm. She makes her way over to the fallen boy, and ponders whether or not she should end it all now and take the boy's life. No Esther. Killing someone is one thing, but killing them while they're not even conscious? That just doesn't seem...right. As Esther ponders what is right and what is wrong, she gazes over her newly acquired weapon, which is still stained with Ben's blood. Having been dissatisfied with her own weapon, a can of deodorant, she is more than happy to be in possession of a weapon that will suit her in close quarters combat. Taking one last look at the pathetic sight in front of her, Esther takes off into the woods with both her own and Ben's supplies, content that someone else will finish off the wounded boy for her...


End file.
